There's No Shame In Living A Dream
by KatyNewt
Summary: Post Series 5. The Trinity finally have what they wanted most, and life at Honolulu Heights is perfect. Too perfect. It doesn't take long for Hal to start having doubts, and he's not the only one. Somewhere far away, in a quiet corner of Purgatory, a door opens... "I told him he should have put us together, that it was incomplete without you two." "And here we are." "Here you are."
1. Living The Dream

******Disclaimer: Being Human belongs to the great (Lord) Toby Whithouse**

So I decided (against my better judgement) that this fic which has been rattling around in my head since the week the show finished, should finally be written. Mostly because I have a terrible memory, and there were only so many notes I could write before I just wanted to get it all out into proper chapters. This means that I am now technically writing three fanfics at the same time. Which even I have to admit is a tad excessive, but bah!

Anyway, my (possibly terrible) decisions aside, I very much hope you enjoy reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it and having it in my head-space. As usual, please review if you feel so compelled, it is nice to know that people are reading what you write - as long as they like it obviously...

Enjoy! x

_"I told him he should have put us together, that it was incomplete without you two." "And here we are." "Here you are."_

**Chapter 1: Living The Dream**

One week, two days, three hours, forty-five minutes and approximately thirty seconds. That was how long she had been away. It had been a very long five-hundred years, but Hal was sure time had never passed this slowly before.

"Hal? Hal! You alright mate?"

The ex-vampire looked up at Tom confusedly, snapping out of his gloomy daydream. His friend frowned down at him concernedly, placing a cup of tea on the breakfast table infront of him.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you." He took a sip of the tea and stood, tipping the half eaten remnants of his toast into the bin. Washing the plate up straight away out of habit, he mentally berated himself for acting like a love sick teenager, especially since he and Alex weren't even together.

"She'll be home soon Hal. You've just got to be patient." Tom smiled amusedly as Hal slipped off his marigolds and came to sit back at the table, picking his tea up to drink again.

"I know. I wasn't thinking about her anyway, I was thinking about the hotel." He lied. Tom snorted, knowing full well that Alex's absence was precisely what he had been thinking about, just as it had been since the moment he had driven away from the house in Scotland the previous week.

Explaining to her family where she had been for the past four and a half months had been difficult to say the least. They had come up with a cover story rather than tell the truth. Alex had insisted that her Dad and brothers needn't know the horrors of the supernatural world, especially as they didn't belong to it any more. So instead, she had told them a little white lie. Or ten.

_One week, two days, four hours, fifty minutes and approximately twenty seconds earlier..._

"_Dad, no!"_

"_I said, who are you and what have you been doing to my daughter?!"_

_Hal clawed uselessly at Brendan's hands around his neck, momentarily dazed after having been slammed up against the wall of the house. He thought vaguely that it would have been nice for her to at least warn him of her father's considerable build, not least that he seemed to have quite a temper. If he had known, he would have insisted that Tom come with them to Scotland, rather than staying at home. Of course, Hal couldn't exactly blame Brendan for being a tad vexed at the situation._

"_Dad! For fucks sake, it wasn't him alright. Let him go! Dad please!" she pulled on Brendan's arm, and the large man turned his head to look down at her bewilderedly. Hal slumped against the wall coughing and gasping for air as Brendan let go of him. The large man's hand shook as he reached to cup her face, tears suddenly streaming from his eyes._

"_Alex. My Alex."_

"_Dad." Alex cried, throwing her arms around her father's neck. He held her tightly, smoothing her hair, sobbing._

_Hal looked away awkwardly, not wanting to intrude on the very personal moment, noticing the three boys at the front door for the first time. He pursed his lips in a small, reassuring smile._

"_Where have you been? What happened? And who is this muppet? If I find out he's anything to do with this Alex I'll wring his neck, no matter who he bloody is." Brendan said through gritted teeth after he and Alex had broken apart, stepping towards Hal again threateningly._

"_No, Dad honestly, it's not like that. This is Hal. He's my friend." Alex insisted, grabbing her father's arm again and steering him away. Hal let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding and followed them tentatively towards the house, unsure of whether to go inside or not. He hovered by the front door while she settled her family in the living room, appearing again a few minutes later._

"_Please don't leave me to explain on my own." She pleaded, watery eyes staring up at him. He forgot his anxiety instantly._

"_Of course I won't." he answered, his fear of her father nothing compared to his concern for her._

"_I'm bound to forget something." She whispered to him as she took his hand and led him inside._

"_You'll do fine, just remember what we practiced in the car on the way here." He reassured her._

_Half an hour later, her father sat in stunned silence while Alex and Hal waited for his reaction, wondering if he would take the bait or not._

"_So... you two were taken into protective custody?"_

"_Yea." Alex confirmed shakily._

"_Because you saw a murder?"_

_Alex nodded._

"_And the gang who did it were put away after you gave evidence against them?"_

"_That's right." Hal acknowledged._

"_It's a bit...quick, isn't it? Don't these things take time? To go through court, forensics, post mortems?"_

"_You don't believe us?" Alex asked worriedly. Brendan mistook her concern for hurt feelings and came to sit beside her, taking her into his arms again. He eyed Hal with suspicion still, over her shoulder._

"_It's not that sweetheart. It's just a lot to take in, that's all."_

"_I know Dad. I'm sorry."_

"_Oh darling. I'm just happy to have you home. This is a miracle."_

_Hal left them to it soon after, feeling it was best that he give them space to deal with the shock as a family. Alex escorted him to the car to say goodbye._

"_Thanks for everything." She said with a small smile._

"_Please, if it wasn't for me you never would have had to leave them in the first place." He scuffed his shoe on the ground uncomfortably._

"_But then I never would have met you." Her smile grew to brighten her face, and Hal was lost in her eyes again, smiling back instinctively. "I mean that we wouldn't have been able to save the world obviously."_

"_Oh, yea, of course. I knew that was what you meant..." she chuckled and cut off his attempt at covering up his disappointment by pressing her lips to his a chaste kiss._

"_Bye Hal." She grinned, making her way back up the garden path towards the house, leaving him stunned and alone by the side of the car. He drove away feeling as though he was leaving a piece of himself behind._

One week, two days, three hours, twenty-nine minutes and approximately ten seconds later...

"I'm a bit nervous about going back to work if I'm honest." Tom admitted, trying to take Hal's mind off of their absent house-mate for a while.

"Rook's department dealt with the bodies and the mess inside. The owners have called in all of the staff who weren't at work on the night that _he_ started the suicides, and who weren't too traumatised to come back to work. I doubt we'll have any guests staying for a while, but getting things back to normal there is better than sitting here thinking too much. Besides, it doesn't matter what's happened to us, we still have bills to pay." Hal explained as he finished his tea.

"I know. I just mean... it'll be strange won't it. Us knowing what really happened."

"Yes. Yes it will."

The day was harder and more emotional than Hal had anticipated. He was still acting manager, and it had been his job to assemble the rag-tag band of leftover staff and deal with the fallout. Those who had turned up had been understandably devastated, having all lost colleagues and friends.

It was odd, but even after a whole week of being human, Hal was surprised to find how much he cared. Even in his good cycles, he had been detached, holding himself at arms length to all but his closest friends, trying not to become emotionally attached to humans. Now there was no distinction to be made, he was one of them, and he felt the tragedy sharply.

It made it worse that Tom was upset. He had bonded with the other staff without question, enjoying the comradery that had come with the job. Hal forgot his stoical list of jobs almost immediately. The day was spent in mourning, lighting candles for the dead and speaking to their still stunned families who filtered in periodically for their lost loved one's belongings.

Hal sent everyone home early, sensing the collective need for breathing space and the comfort of more familiar surroundings. Needing some form of closure himself, his last act before locking the doors that afternoon was to go upstairs to the room that had been Hatch's and lock it, leaving a note pinned to the door declaring that it was to be left vacant indefinitely.

When they got home, Tom decided he wanted to go running in the woods on his own, leaving Hal at a loss as to what to do. He no longer needed his routines to keep him safe, his compulsions leaving him like a long-held stale breath as soon as he became human. It had been a blessed relief, but had left him with time to kill, especially once Alex had gone just a few days after the change. Tom seemed to be adapting well, but he had wanted to be alone more than usual. Hal supposed that after almost twenty-one years of living with the wolf inside him, it was strangely refreshing to feel truly.

Once she had stopped eating, finally bloated and contented, Alex had relished going outside and being seen. She had certainly commanded attention with her questionable wardrobe made up of odds and ends of his and Tom's clothes, but she hadn't minded at all. They had gone to the pub the second night, all three of them feeling the need to do something normal and human. They had laughed, played pool and drunk far too much, and Alex had ended up dancing on a table, much to Tom's amusement, and his cheerful embarrassment.

He sighed, catching himself thinking about her again. Sitting on her usual stool at the bar, he opened the book he had left there the previous night and began reading. Tom had returned after a few hours, and they ate in relative silence, neither of them really in the mood for chatter. He had gone straight up to his room leaving Hal along again, and not long after, with the emotional exhaustion of the day taking its toll, the ex-vampire found himself nodding off. He leant his head on the bar for a moment, just to rest his eyes.

Five hours later he awoke with a start, the only light in the room cast by the tepid orange street lights filtering through the blinds, and a strange scratching noise outside. Coming to, he rose from the stool and stretched, making his way to the window to investigate the noise. He heard her before he saw her.

"Shit! Where's the bloody spare key?" Alex cursed in hushed tones, his face lighting up in a smile. He practically ran to the door, stopping himself at the threshold to pull himself together, wanting to at least appear cool and calm, even if his heart was racing.

When he finally opened the door, she was scrabbling about in one of the hanging baskets, still looking for the spare key that she knew was hidden somewhere. She hadn't exactly needed a key before.

"It's here. There's a crack in the wall behind the drain pipe." He smiled amusedly as she jumped, gesturing towards the wall to his right.

"Jesus Hal! And here was me thinking your ninja skills were part of being a vampire."

"You came back." He stated happily.

"Well obviously." She grinned, picking up the bright yellow duffle bag at her feet and dragging a large, wheeled suitcase behind her. Hal stepped forward to take the case, ever the gentleman.

"And you're staying?" he asked uncertainly as they made their way inside.

"No, I just don't travel light. This should tide me over until the weekend then I'm going back." She grinned, shaking her head at the look of distress that passed briefly across his features before he realised she was joking.

"Very funny. Why didn't you tell us you were coming? I would have driven up to get you."

"I was going to, but it was nice to just sit on a train and be normal. It's still a bit of a novelty to be able to be seen by people. Slightly less of a novelty after eight bloody hours and two changes, one of which was in Birmingham. I mean, Birmingham Hal, Birmingham. But it was still nice."

"Well, it's great to have you back." He smiled politely, trying and failing not to blush as he said it. "Tea?" he asked quickly, turning away to beat a hasty retreat towards the kitchen before she even answered.

"I'd love one thanks. But..." Alex grabbed his hand before he could move too far away, pulling him back towards her. "We really need to have that talk."

"What, _that_ talk? Now?"

"I've had a lot of time to think while I've been away."

"Yes. Me too."

"And what do you think?"

"This isn't really about me Alex, it depends on what you want." He answered, looking at the carpet shyly.

"So I take it that means you're onboard? With us I mean. The offer of _"me, there's me"_ is still on the table?"

"Yes. Emphatically so." He swallowed nervously, meeting her eyes again.

"Good." She tugged him the rest of the way, pulling him up against her and kissing him before he had a chance to register what was happening. Once he'd got over his initial shock, he let go of his anxieties and gave in to kissing her back, all of the pent up attraction and sexual tension finally free. She placed both of his hands on her waist, moving her own hands up swiftly to run them through his hair. The kiss progressed quickly, tongues tangling together in a sudden rush of palpable need.

"So we're together? Officially?" he asked breathlessly, lips still grazing hers with soft kisses.

"Yup." She sucked on his bottom lip, smirking as she felt him shudder slightly.

"As in, an item?"

"Yup. I'd go so far as to say we're courting." She smiled mockingly against his lips.

He broke the kiss, smiling too widely to carry on, resting their foreheads together and nuzzling his nose against hers.

They spent the rest of the night curled up on the sofa together, watching trashy films, drinking copious amounts of tea and catching up on the past week's events. Eventually, in the early hours of the morning, she fell asleep in his arms, exhausted after her long journey home. He watched her sleep, still in awe that she had come back to him, that she had chosen him at all after all that had happened between them. Everything was perfect now.

Too perfect.

In the back of his mind, something niggled. The days had been sunny, beautiful, cloudless. Every day for the whole two weeks. That was rare for Wales, even in the summer, and yet no one spoke about it. Everything was warm, and fuzzy, and... dreamlike. The doubt wouldn't leave him, no matter how hard he tried to forget and be happy.

He had said it himself. He had told Hatch to put them together, and he was starting to believe that that was exactly what the devil had done.

* * *

Far away, in a quiet corner of purgatory, a door creaked open. The corridor flooded briefly with bright, white light, before returning to dim, industrial gloom as the door closed. The ghost that had passed through it walked along the passage with trepidation, nervous at being outside again, not meant to be here at all. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and she had never been one to follow the rules.

Eventually, after many twists and turns, she reached a heavy wooden door, twice the size of any of the others she had seen. She took a deep breath which she didn't really need, calming herself before pushing the iron-bound door wide open.

"Order! Order!" A booming voice called from inside, gavel banging uselessly in an attempt to silence the multitude of voices inside the sprawling courtroom. Ghosts swarmed everywhere, crowding around television sets in the public gallery, waving up at the judge furiously, trying to get his attention. Others milled about not seeming to know what to do.

She strode through them all, climbing the steps to the witness box and clearing her throat loudly. When that didn't work, she waved a hand politely, trying to get the judge's attention.

"Your honour? Your... your Honour? Oh... Piss sticks. Oi!" she shouted, waving both arms above her head. Abruptly, the room became quiet, every set of eyes in the place looking at her, and she felt suddenly awkward, smiling apologetically. "Sorry."

"And who might you be?" the judge thundered, frowning at her accusingly. She took another breath before answering, drawing herself up to her full height.

"My name is Annie Sawyer. I saved the human world once before and I'd like to try again please... your Honour."

**So, any thoughts? Thanks again for reading, I hope it was alright! Chapter 2 to follow soon...**


	2. Court In A Trap

**********Disclaimer: Being Human belongs to the great (Lord) Toby Whithouse**

This chapter has been a bit of a nightmare, so sorry for the wait after uploading chapter 1, but it was important that I got it right. Well hopefully I've done that and you enjoy it! Thanks so much for all the reviews, follows and favourites so far! x

**Chapter 2: Court In A Trap**

"Order! ORDER!" The judge whacked the dark wood of his desk with the gavel angrily to settle the crowd of ghosts again. The sudden crescendo that had followed Annie's request fell immediately silent. "Explain yourself."

She had never heard of The Court before today, but everywhere she had gone to find answers about what was happening outside, the answer had been a variation of the same. Nobody knew, but they had all pointed her in the same direction. Purgatory wasn't really overseen by anyone, or at least that was her understanding. It just sort of... worked, on its own. But there were those who knew more about its processes and its mysteries than others, those who had been here longer, those who were privy to information that she could only imagine. These were the people that held sway in these strange abandoned hallways, and the Judge was one of them. Undeterred, she had made her way to The Court as fast as she could.

"Right. Well, umm..." Annie smiled uncomfortably, swallowing down a sudden bout of stage fright. "I stopped the Old Ones. I mean, not just me, I had _some_ help, but yea I... I did that. Well, me and Eve."

"And?" the judge boomed, looking spectacularly underwhelmed.

"And? _And_ a thank you would be nice I suppose." She laughed jovially, but got no response from the crowd of ghosts before her. They stared up at her, a sea of blank, humourless faces. "No? Tough crowd." She mumbled, fidgeting with her cardigan. "Ok, well I suppose what I'm saying is that if the world is in danger, then I want to help."

"You think killing off a few vampires qualifies you?" A man near the front of the crowd called up with a sneer.

"Well... yes. Maybe." She glared back, crossing her arms indignantly.

"Miss Sawyer," the portly judge began, taking off his glasses and scratching his head wearily through his wig, "whether or not you are capable of assisting the world is irrelevant. That is not the business of this court."

"What do you mean _not the business of this court_?"

"We are not of the human world any more Miss Sawyer. We are ethereal. We have had our time and now it is over. As a rule, we do not knowingly interfere with the affairs of the living."

"Hang on, are you saying we should just sit back and watch the apocalypse?"

"I am saying, Miss Sawyer, that it does not concern you, especially as you are Complete. In fact, you shouldn't be here at all. Go and enjoy your little slice of heaven and leave me be."

Annie bristled. _Complete_ was a name given to ghosts who had passed over fully, and they were a relative rarity in the haunted halls of Purgatory. After all, who would swap completion and eternal life with loved ones for peeling paintwork and something vaguely reminiscent of a hospital basement? She hadn't wanted to come back, but she couldn't just let the world burn and do nothing. While free to traverse purgatory if they wished, Complete ghosts could not re-enter the human world any more than werewolves who had passed over could become ghosts. She still wasn't exactly sure why, something to do with red tape as far as she could make out, but Annie had been miffed to say the least to find that out, having hoped to be able to pop back every once in a while to see how Tom, Hal and her family were doing. Still, finding George, Nina and baby Eve had been quite enough to keep her happy in the end. Now, however, it was one hell of an inconvenience.

"But it _does_ concern me! There are people I care about over there, people who are right in the middle of this! I won't abandon them." she stuck her out chin determinedly.

"You have no choice. You know as well as I that you cannot go back, so the matter is closed." The judge waved a hand dismissively. The noise and clamour of the other ghosts in the room started up again, most losing interest in her instantly, a few flashing sympathetic smiles and grimaces her way.

"At least you tried love." An elderly lady looked up at her sadly.

Annie was incensed.

"Wait, no! This isn't right, this isn't fair!"

"LIFE ISN'T FAIR!" the judge boomed, making her and most of the other ghosts in the room jump. "Why should death be any different?"

"At least let me help with the planning or something. I want to be involved somehow, to do my bit..."

"What planning? We are not here to interfere Miss Sawyer, I thought I made that much clear."

"So... hang on, you're really not doing _anything_?"

"No Miss Sawyer, we are not. Now if you would please..."

"Oh well that's just great isn't it! Fantastic! I'll just go and get some popcorn and a drink shall I, maybe pull up a chair, you know, get comfy while I watch the destruction of the world!" she ranted furiously.

"The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of those who are able to protect it. Not with us." The judge answered tiredly.

"What, and we just leave them to it? Have you actually seen the pictures? Do you know what's going on out there?!"

The news had filtered through slowly at first, but the images plastered on every screen in purgatory and beyond told a disturbing story. Bodies everywhere, an increasing amount by the looks of things, as a man clad in a dark suit and bright yellow tie strolled merrily along streets she recognised in Cardiff, whispering something inaudible in people's ears, causing carnage. The images had horrified her, but it was the sight of Hal, Tom and Alex unconscious on the floor of what looked like a television studio that had worried her most. It had been the briefest of clips, just a flash on the screen, but it shouted one thing at Annie. They were somehow involved and they needed help.

"I am well aware of the situation, far more knowledgeable about it than you I dare say! If you continue to disrespect me Miss Sawyer, be warned. I will be forced to find you in contempt of court and you _will_ be taken into custody." He growled irritably.

Annie swallowed nervously, not really sure what purgatory's version of custody entailed, but certain that she didn't want to find out.

"Please, I'm not trying to be disrespectful your Honour. It's just... well surely someone must be able to do _something_?"

"A Trinity is the world's only hope Miss Sawyer, and as..." the judge began, Annie interrupting him almost immediately, a wide smile plastered across her face upon hearing the term Trinity.

"Yes! A Trinity! A werewolf, a ghost and a vampire, but I know some people who could help! They need me, they need us, now! If we can save them, then we can..."

"**And**," he continued over her,"as the only Trinity in the near vicinity of the crisis has been incapacitated, it seems the fate of the world is sealed." He finished matter-of-factly. Annie opened and closed her mouth uselessly a few times, too stunned to speak.

"Incapacitated?" she managed finally.

"Thrown into a dream by the devil and unaware of the fact. Or unwilling to leave. It's hard to tell."

Annie had known that the devil was behind the deaths and destruction, the very walls of purgatory seeming to buzz with the fact, but hearing it confirmed out loud was like a kick to the gut. She hadn't even really been sure he existed until a few hours ago. She had suspected of course, but wondering and knowing were two entirely different things. She swallowed down her fear at the revelation and continued.

"But if it's just a dream we could wake them up, couldn't we? Please, at the very least they're my friends, but if they're the only people who can save the world, that makes them important surely?"

"The world has fallen to the devil. The Trinity you speak of is in ruins and useless. Look around you Miss Sawyer. Purgatory is a safe haven compared to what is awaiting out there, and you want to send a poor soul from here to wake your friends because you think they can defeat an evil such as he? Think of what you ask girl."

"But... doesn't anyone care? What about your families, some of you must have people you care about out there surely? Don't you want to save them? Please!" Annie pleaded to the crowd. Some watched her dispassionately, others looked away ashamedly, and some wept openly. But none spoke out. "You cowards." She shook her head, angry tears brimming at the corners of her eyes.

"It isn't simple terror that stops them. If you had been here earlier, when this session started, you would know the full extent of the devil's power, but yet again you display an abysmal lack of knowledge on the matter in hand. The men with sticks and ropes are his creatures. He has become strong enough to control them fully, and has set them to work guarding the doors. So you see Miss Sawyer, souls may neither enter nor leave these corridors. You have your answer. Nothing can be done." The judge added softly, surprising her with his sudden and unexpected compassion.

She leant back against the railings of the witness box, stunned. No wonder the other ghosts had remained silent. And yet still, she honestly believed that if she had been able, she would have tried, even with the threat of the men with sticks and ropes.

A sudden idea hit her.

"What if I could convince someone?"

"Miss Sawyer, this really has gone beyond a joke now, I'm sorry but you're going to have to accept, just as all of the ghosts you see before you have, that we are powerless to..."

"Are we though? I mean they're only guarding the doors, that means if we could trick them, or something..."

"You really are clutching at straws now."

"I know I am but what else do you expect me to do? If I can find another ghost, or someone on the outside already who can help, will that work?" Annie asked desperately, gripping the railings infront of her tightly.

The judge sat back in his chair and thought for a moment.

"Do you know the full extent of the consequences?"

"Yes. Probably. No."

"Then allow me to explain. As I said, no one can exit purgatory without the risk of being intercepted by the men with sticks and ropes, but no one may enter either. Spirits are trapped on the outside now, forced to wander the Kingdom of the Dead for eternity. Any ghost who manages, somehow, to slip past the guards at the doors and leave here will not be able to return unless the Trinity succeeds."

"I'll find someone willing, whether they're werewolf, vampire, ghost, whatever, I swear..."

"A nigh on impossible task..."

"Yes, I know, it'll be difficult, but there must be people willing to fight. What's the alternative?" Annie stood up straight again, hope beginning to return.

"There is more. The Trinity you wish to aid is broken, perhaps irreparably."

"Broken?"

"As I have it, the vampire has fallen back into his old ways. The werewolf and ghost are somewhat unimpressed by this."

"Oh Hal." Annie closed her eyes and shook her head, the blood soaked vest she had glimpsed him wearing on the television screen earlier now suddenly making sense. "Does that matter?"

"With the devil as strong as he apparently is, anything less than a whole Trinity is unlikely to be enough for a long-term solution."

"Right. Perfect." She muttered, secretly cursing the vampire, though she understood that he had struggled. When she had left them he had already drunk blood, so it made sense that he hadn't made it back to being clean again. She thought back to her and Eve standing in a hall staring up at a poster of him at his worst, and wondered if that was what he was now.

_He's violent, sadistic, and well, quite literally their poster boy..._

She shivered and gripped the railing again. "I'm still not going to give up." she said determinedly. George and Nina said she was probably the most stubborn person they had ever met. She decided she could see why now.

The judge's eyebrows rose slightly in surprise before he sat forward again deep in thought.

"Very well Miss Sawyer. Then I permit you to stage your little rescue attempt. Your challenge is thus. After being woken, the Trinity must be persuaded to find peace. You must find three people willing, in full knowledge of what awaits them, to help your _friends_ to triumph against the devil. If you do not, the world will fall regardless. A mammoth task I think you'll agree." He smiled chillingly.

"Hang on, three? Why three? Why make things more difficult?"

"Each soul you choose must have a personal connection to one of your friends, in order to inspire a reconciliation between them." he continued with a sneer. "Besides that, you seem the sort of girl who likes a challenge, and as I see little-to-no chance of you actually succeeding, I may as well make things amusing. And three is the magic number after all, is it not?" he smiled mockingly. Annie only just managed not to shoot a glare his way. "If you decide you do not like my proposal, and I discover that you have taken matters into your own hands without my consent, I will find you, remand you in custody, and throw away the proverbial key as a message to all of purgatory's inhabitants that I am to be obeyed. With the borders closed, there are bound to be some adventurous spirits trapped here for all eternity, intent on causing me trouble for the sake of it. I want them to know in no uncertain terms that I am not to be trifled with. Times are changing my girl, and I will not have Purgatory fall into chaos as the world outside has done."

"But... but..."

"No buts. Those are my terms Miss Sawyer. Take them or leave them."

* * *

"So I was thinking. We should get married."

Hal choked on his tea.

"What?" he spluttered.

"Yea, I was thinking a summer wedding, maybe June. What do you think?" Alex asked distractedly as she tucked in to a huge bowl of cereal.

"I... uh... Alex..."

"Hmm?"

"Don't you think it's a bit... well... soon?"

"Nah, we've been together a whole four days. My mate Natalie got engaged to her boyfriend after three hours. Not even kidding."

Hal stared at her, wondering if they were about to reach a milestone in their relationship. Their first argument. He was certain she wouldn't appreciate him telling her that the idea terrified him.

"Alex, I don't quite know how to say this, but..." He stopped, noticing her impish grin. "Oh very funny."

"Ha! You actually thought I was serious!"

"That was a profoundly cruel trick Alex Millar. And here was I thinking we were friends." He shook his head in mock indignation, but his smile, part amusement part relief, betrayed him.

"I hope we're more than that." She answered, her impish grin returning.

Hal had just enough time to wonder what mischief she was planning next before he jolted suddenly, shocked to find her shoeless foot wrapped behind his calf. He froze as the foot climbed higher, brushing the back of his knee, sweeping around to travel lightly up the inside of his thigh. He managed to get a grip of himself just in time to thrust a hand under the table to catch her wayward foot before she reached his groin. He hadn't realised they were sitting so close together at the table. Without really thinking about it, he couldn't help but be impressed at her apparent nimbleness.

_Not helping, _he thought to himself as he lowered her foot gently to the floor. She looked mildly disappointed.

"Alex, not at the breakfast table, please."

"But anywhere else is fine right?" she winked. _Jesus, she actually winked_. He nearly agreed, before snapping his eyes away from hers, which were starting to make him blush like an adolescent boy.

"That's not quite what I meant." He managed, trying not to appear too flustered.

"Hal, I'm going to be frank with you, and I don't want you to go all Pride and Prejudice on me like I know you're gonna. Right from when I first saw you in the cafe, I wanted you. You know, _want_ want, just incase you weren't aware. Since then a lot's got in the way of that, and even though most of it sucked and was bloody horrible, I'm glad it happened, because it means now I don't just want you like that, I want to be with you too. **But**, make no mistake, I do still want to jump your bones like you wouldn't believe, and I am not about to let your ridiculous courtship rules or whatever stand in the way of that. It's happening whether you like it or not. And you'd better like it." She finished frustratedly, her expression stern. He raised an eyebrow.

"Right. So we're talking about this are we..."

"Yes we're talking about it! It's been four days Hal, four days, and you've barely touched me!"

"I... that's not true..."

"Yes it is! Eight quick kisses, three snogs, including the one the night I got back, and my one lame attempt at playing footsy which you just had to go and ruin." She counted on her fingers, proceeding to fold her arms and glare him. He almost laughed at her perturbed expression, finding it undeniably adorable. He stopped himself, getting the feeling she wouldn't see the funny side.

"You're upset because I haven't propositioned you. How times have changed. Once upon a time, most women got upset if you did the opposite..."

"Stop trying to change the subject Hal, why are you being so... so... frigid?!"

"Frigid? I'm not being frigid, I'm being respectful." He answered exasperatedly.

"I don't want you to be respectful, I want you to be passionate, and romantic, and sexy! I want you to... I don't know, throw me on the table and have your way with me or something, not just act like we're living in the sodding eighteen-hundreds!"

"What's wrong with the eighteen-hundreds?" Hal murmured, a little hurt.

"HAL!"

"I won't apologise for being prudish Alex!"

"I don't want you to apologise, I want you to _want_ me too." She said quietly, looking down at the table top. Hal shut his eyes and sighed. Standing up, he moved his chair around the table to sit next to her, taking her hand.

"Believe me, I do want you. I really,_ really_ want you." He swallowed, feeling his cheeks begin to flush again."But I want to do things properly."

"What do you mean properly?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My whole life I've been doing things wrong. Even before I was a vampire, my morals were... loose, to say the least. This feels like a second chance, a rebirth if you like, and I don't want to sully it by rushing things. I want us to last, not to be just a rush of hedonistic, tawdry encounters that you might regret further down the line. I want to treat you with respect, and to start our relationship afresh, the way it should have been."

Alex couldn't help but smile at that. She smirked and pushed herself off her own chair to sit on his lap before he could stop her, wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight hug.

"Alright, I've got to admit, that's probably the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me. You can be a charming sod when you want to be can't you?" She pulled back to look at him, and he smiled his lopsided smile in response. "However, I feel it's only fair to point out that had things gone the way they should have after our first date, I would have shagged you that night." His smile slipped slightly as he tipped his head and shot her a chastising look.

"And I feel I should point out that had you succeeded and things had gone the way**I **had wanted at the time, I would almost certainly have killed you."

"Then I suppose we're both lucky things didn't go to plan. Well, except that I got killed anyway. And I'm sure being killed in your bed would have been way better than getting killed by Cutler. Talk about an anti-climax." She joked. Hal frowned, losing his smile completely.

"Alex, don't. It still hurts to think that I caused..."

"Shut up idiot." She groaned exasperatedly, grabbing his shirt collar to pull his lips to hers and kissing him, letting him see exactly what he was missing. He sighed happily and brought his hands up to caress her back with his finger tips through her dressing gown.

"Bloody hell you two, get a room." Tom complained, walking into the kitchen and starting to pour himself a bowl of cereal. They pulled apart, smiling.

"Sorry Tom." Alex grinned, shifting back to her own seat.

"Ready for work?" Hal asked as Tom came to sit at the table with them. "It'll be tough I know, but we need to get into some sort of normality again. Familiarity will help us to adjust."

"Yes Boss." He smiled, taking a mouthful of cereal. "Never mind me, what about the new girl?"

"Actually I'm looking forward to it. And believe me, I never thought I'd say that." Alex chuckled.

Alex hadn't taken long to raise the subject of employment. Having spent four and a half months bored and unoccupied, between supernatural emergencies and saving the world, she was beyond ready to embrace the tedious, and very human, world of work once more. And there were perks to being very well acquainted with the manager of a woefully understaffed hotel. Needless to say, the interview hadn't exactly been conventional, or particularly PC...

_One day, nineteen hours, thirty-two minutes and approximately ten seconds earlier..._

"_So Alex, have you any experience in the hotel trade?"_

"_Well I've stayed at the Savoy." Alex grinned at him from the chair on the other side of the desk._

"_Alex, be serious..." he sighed._

"_Why? You're going to give me the job anyway, I don't get why we have to go through this interview bullshit anyway."_

"_Because it's protocol. Now..."_

"_You didn't even ask if I was ready for you to pump me." She pretended to sulk, a sly smile creeping over her features. Hal shuddered at the memory of his own brief interview with Patsy._

"_There will be no pumping going on, thank you." He frowned down at the top of the desk, looking at the notes he had prepared on the application form he had made her fill out._

_She huffed an irritated sigh._

"_Tell me Miss Millar, why do you want this job?" he smiled at her professionally._

"_I don't know. Money. Something to do. Free shampoo and slippers. And the manager's pretty nice to look at."_

_He closed his eyes for a moment and ignored her answer._

"_Fine. How well do you fair working under pressure?"_

_She looked at him blankly._

"_You're seriously asking me that?"_

_He looked up at her, smiling and nodding to encourage her to answer._

"_Well, Mr. manager Sir, I happen to think I'm actually pretty damn good under pressure."_

"_Oh really? And why's that?" He smirked at her._

"_You know, I beat the devil and shit. No big deal."_

_His smile faltered for a moment at her certainty that they had won. He swallowed the doubt away._

"_I see." He pretended to make a note on her application and muttered under his breath, "Clearly delusional."_

"_Oh so it's alright if you fuck about!"_

"_Of course it is. I'm the boss." He winked at her. That did it._

_She rose from her chair almost serenely, but there the grace and refinement ended. She walked around the desk and stood infront of him, swivelling his chair so he faced her._

"_Any more questions for me, boss?" she bent forward, leaning on the arms of the wide swivel chair. He gulped and tried very hard not to look down at her cleavage._

"_I... uh... yes, as a matter of fact I do." She locked eyes with him, smirking as she brought her knees up one after the other the straddle him on the seat. "Would you say you're a people person?" he all but whispered._

"_Oh yea. I'm very personable." She murmured, shuffling herself closer to him._

"_So I see. And are you capable of working as part of a team?"_

_He winced, realising what he'd just managed to ask completely by accident. She chuckled throatily at him._

"_I prefer a one-to-one working arrangement personally, but who am I to judge." She dipped her head to kiss his neck, running her lips teasingly over the day old stubble along the line of his jaw. He swallowed._

"_How important is job satisfaction to you?" His breath hitched as she sucked at the skin under his earlobe._

"_Extremely." She pulled back slightly, her lips hovering above his and a wry smile plainly evident from the gleam in her eye._

"_Any... special skills, you think you can bring to the role?"_

_She slipped her tongue between his lips and ran it across his own in answer._

"_Mhmm. I'll take that as a definite yes. You're hired."_

_One day, nineteen hours, twenty-two minutes and approximately seven seconds later..._

"Right, I'd better go upstairs and get changed or I'll be late. Coming?" Alex winked at Hal. His jaw nearly hit the floor. "Don't blow a gasket, I'm only kidding. Unless you..."

"Go." He managed to croak. He could still hear her laughing all the way up the stairs. Tom grinned at him.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that." Hal apologised, shaking his head.

"Don't be, I'm happy for you both mate. Everything's falling into place now isn't it?"

"Yes. Yes it is." Hal agreed, putting on a smile for his friend.

The truth was, he couldn't tell Alex the real reason he was holding back on their relationship. His morals did play a part, and he did want to do things properly for once in his very long and debauched life, but it wasn't just that. The fact was, it felt wrong to take that step with her when he suspected that the world they were living in was a lie. She might want him now, and he might love her, but that didn't change the fact that somewhere out there, the real her would be repulsed by the idea of having the real him anywhere near her. Because in what he suspected was the real world, he was bad Hal, and she despised him.

Being intimate with her would be like a violation, if he was right, and he couldn't stomach the thought of doing that to her. It had to be her choice, knowing the full truth of their current situation. Which left Hal with something of a dilemma.

He had two choices.

Tell her, and risk shattering her happy world, all for the sake of their shared happiness.

Or keep her in the dark about it and never let her get too close to him.

He sighed at himself and got up to don his shoes and jacket. Even in the perfect dream, he just _had_ to go and mess everything up by thinking too much.


	3. Trouble In Paradise

**********Disclaimer: Being Human belongs to the great (Lord) Toby Whithouse**

Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favourites so far, your support has been most appreciated! This one was about to be posted as a shorter chapter - until I noticed a plot hole, a mistake and a missing piece of information, so it's now been extended. Enjoy! x

**Chapter 3: Trouble In Paradise**

"_Little to no chance of success_, he says. _May as well make things amusing_, he says! Well thanks a bloody lot Judge Judy, that was most helpful! Twat." Annie seethed after closing the courtroom door behind her. "I mean, it's not like I'm trying to save the pissing world or anything!"

She stormed through corridor after corridor in a blind rage, needing to distance herself from the quarrelsome judge and the useless milling mass of ghosts happy to let the world sink into abyss. She knew that wasn't fair but in her current mood, she couldn't help but be dismayed at their lack of protest. Eventually she came to a stop at a junction in the corridors, falling against one of the walls and sliding down it hopelessly, her body wracked with sobs.

"Why is it always me? Why do I have to be the saviour of the world again?" She sniffed and wiped her cheeks roughly with the back of one of her hands, her anger slowly subsiding. "I wish Mitchell was here." She mumbled quietly to herself, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her chin on top. She stayed like that for a while, thinking about the injustice of the situation, the things she had sacrificed, the people she had lost, the life that had been torn away from her. _But_, she concluded as her tears abated, _if it wasn't for all that, I would never have met George, or Nina, or Mitchell, and we wouldn't have Eve._

She rose to her feet and dusted herself off for the sheer symbolism of another fight beginning.

"Well, someone's got to save the world. Might as well be me. Again."

Now she just needed to figure out how to do that. She wasn't going to let the judge's lack of belief get to her. She was going to beat the devil if it was the last thing she did. She was going to find three people to stand for the trinity and she would heal the wounds that had broken them. She would find _someone_. And she would start with Tom...

* * *

Having left Alistair standing in the street, hopefully considering just what an imbecile he had been to attempt to suspend the activities of the only body that stood between the humans of Britain and supernatural chaos, Rook had instructed the driver of the disgraced Home Secretary's private car to make his way to the Archive, pondering just what his next move should be. In truth, he had drawn almost a complete blank. The exultation of being begged to come back, of having his department and beloved job safe again, had been short lived. For as soon as the car door closed and the driver pulled away, the silence of the journey and the trail of lifeless bodies along the route closed in around Rook, and made him feel overwhelmingly small and powerless.

What could he possibly do against the devil?

He tried not to dwell on the fact that he had been partially responsible for all this, that in truth, the greater good had not been served, not in the slightest. Hindsight was both a wonderful and a terrible thing at times. He tried to swallow down the guilt, push the feeling of failure to the back of his mind, and do his job. Because his could well be the most important job in the world right at that moment.

He thought back to his meeting with Hal and Tom just half an hour before. It seemed like hours ago already. What could he do? What was he missing?

His mind wandered to Hatch's visit to the Archive before that, goosebumps pricking his skin and stomach sinking at the memory. It hadn't been until after he had already blurted out the secret of his petty revenge on his deceased father that he had had any inkling of just what Hatch was. Even then the revelation of his true identity had come as a terrible shock. How could he have been in such close quarters with the man and not noticed anything amiss? He felt such an utter fool. The shame of it would haunt him for the rest of his days.

Wait...

The secret.

He shot forward in his seat, eyes wide as the realisation finally hit home.

Hatch had made him reveal a secret to prove he could pull any information he wished from Rook's head, that no piece of information was safe however deeply he had buried it. The exercise had served only as an amusement to the older man. But that didn't matter, not in the slightest, not now. What mattered was what he had gone to the Archive to get.

The broadcast codes.

The relevance hadn't dawned on him until now, the shock of seeing all the bodies and his part in the disaster, not to mention being chased down and threatened by the very vampire he had purposely forced unceremoniously off the proverbial wagon, had dulled his mind to what was important. What was it that Hal had said to Tom in the alleyway?

"_What was it you said? He can't whisper to the whole world? I think he just found a way." _

How could he have forgotten already, have not taken the significance of the statement to heart?! If Hatch was going to use the codes to broadcast his message to the world, then there was something he could do to stop it.

If he was quick...

"Stop!" He yelled to the driver.

"What Sir?" the confused chauffeur asked, pulling up at the side of the road. Through the windscreen, Rook could see a pileup ahead blocking the road partially, bodies surrounding the mass of cars on the tarmac and draped over the twisted metal of the wreckage.

"I need to go to the nearest television station."

The driver turned in his seat and stared as if Rook had gone mad.

"Well? The nearest television station, do you know where that is?"

"Yes sir, I think so, but..."

"No buts, just go. Drive, now!"

The driver shrugged and pulled away again, passing the smoking pileup gingerly and heading out of the city centre.

Rook fumbled his mobile phone from his jacket pocket and scrolled through the contacts list, finding the number he wanted and dialling frantically. There was no answer at first, but on the fifth attempt, victory!

"Philip? Philip, it's Dominic Rook. Yes... yes I know very well what's going on outside... Yes, the department was shut down but it has been reinstated as of a quarter of an hour ago... Phillip... Phillip please... PHILLIP! Listen for God's sake man! I need you to do something for me. I need you to shut down all broadcast signals for the entire South Wales area. Yes, all of them. Internet, telephone, television, radio, mobile signal, everything. No I have not gone mad, damn you! I know it's not my jurisdiction, but trust me, you need to listen to me! Shut them down and **I'll** worry about the consequences later! ...Oh believe me, the Prime Minister having my guts for garters is the very least of my problems at the moment..."

He cut the call and put his head in his hands. Shutting off the broadcast signals was only the start. If Hatch wanted to reach a wide audience, Rook would have to go to the very top, contact the government in Westminster and go through the Cabinet itself to shut down every radio and television signal in the entire country. It would take time, but it was a necessity. It may well be the only chance they had to defend themselves and the world. They would keep Hatch contained until they could think up a more permanent strategy.

But that would come later. It was Plan B. For now, there was somewhere he had to be. He had to find Hatch, and try to stop him himself. It was his responsibility, and if there was anything Dominic Rook would gladly put his life on the line for, it was duty.

* * *

Tom shook his head in disbelief as he put the phone down. That was the third call they'd had today from people wanting to book rooms. Nothing strange there, but they'd only been open again for a week, and Barry wasn't exactly back on its feet after the suicides.

"We've had another booking." He remarked, as Hal came through the door from the entrance hall.

"Another one? How many is that now?" He frowned, coming around to Tom's side of the bar to look at the guest book.

"Eight people in total, five coming the day after next, three at the weekend. That's nuts, what they all coming _here_ for?"

"I've no idea."

"It's obvious isn't it?" Alex sighed, walking past with an armful of table cloths. Tom and Hal looked up at her confusedly.

"No?" They answered in unison. She stopped and placed the pile of white linen on the bar.

"They're coming here because this is where it all started."

Tom and Hal stared at her blankly.

"Why would they want to do that?" Tom asked after a moment. Alex sighed again and jumped up to sit on the bar.

"Why do people go on ghost hunts? Why do they go on walking tours of historical serial killer's murder scenes? Why is the London Dungeons such a massive tourist attraction? If there's one thing that fascinates humans, it's death."

"That's a bit silly isn't it?" he asked, scratching his head. His fingers subconsciously sought out the scars that should have been there, his hand falling back to his side as he looked at the others to see if they'd noticed. He was relieved to find that they appeared oblivious.

"Yea, well it seems a bit stupid now. I used to love all that stuff, Most Haunted was like, my favourite show when I was a teenager. Suddenly it doesn't hold quite the same appeal." She grimaced, swinging her legs against the counter top.

"So they're coming because loads of people died here?" Tom frowned.

"Yea, basically."

Hal shook his head again and tutted.

"How morbid. Well I suppose all we can do is cater for them. And whatever their motivations, having guests staying here again can only be a good thing. Which reminds me, Alex, if we're going to have paying guests again, I feel it's only fair I let you know that you're still acting as though you're a ghost." Hal smiled at her indignant expression.

"I am not!"

"Alex..." he nodded towards her, eyes sparkling with amusement, drawing attention to her position on the bar. She looked down at herself, noticing what she had done for the first time. A flush spread across her cheeks and she crossed her arms over her chest crossly.

"So? I just fancied a sit down. What about you Dracula? I saw the look of panic on your face the other day when we were walking home and that kid had a nosebleed on the promenade. So... don't judge alright." She finished huffily. Hal chuckled at her, and received a glare for his trouble.

"Just try to stop acting as though people can't see you. I know, after almost five months it must be easy to forget, but you'll get there. Give it time." He smiled at her affectionately, and chanced giving her knee a quick squeeze. It seemed to have the desired effect, as Tom noticed her expression change from annoyance to something akin to contentment in next to no time. "I hate to think what'll happen in you forget you have to pay for things in shops now." Hal added, earning another glare, albeit this one far less venomous than the first.

"Oh har bloody har. I'm not _that_ complacent."

Tom thought it best to stay quiet, despite the fact that she had told him only yesterday that she had almost done that very thing twice already this week. It seemed they were all having trouble adjusting to being human.

"Right, I'm going. Work to do and all that jazz." Alex jumped down from the bar and grabbed the pile of table cloths again, giving Hal a quick kiss before heading off towards the laundry room.

"You don't have to look so guilty." Tom grinned in answer to the apologetic smile Hal flashed him. "I mean, it's a bit weird, you two bein' all loved up an' that, but it's sort of... nice, too."

"Really? We were worried it would make you uncomfortable."

"Nah! You two were made for each other. You're like... Ronnie and Claude."

"Who?"

"You know, them gangsters who went round robbing banks an' that in America."

"I think you mean Bonnie and Clyde, Tom. And we're very much not, unless one of us suddenly develops a penchant for armed robbery. My money's on Alex for the record." Hal smirked.

"You know what I meant." Tom rolled his eyes.

"Well I must say, it's nice to have your blessing. Thank you."

"What did you think I was going to do, forbid you from seeing each other?" he laughed, going back to filling in the booking form he had started earlier. Hal paused, hovering uncertainly by the corner of the counter top.

"And you really don't mind?" he asked finally.

"No! Now stop being an idiot. You're me mates, of course I want you to be happy. Even if it's still a bit weird that you're probably gonna get married, and have loads of babies, and have dinner parties and that." Ignoring the look of terror that flashed across Hal's face at the mention of children, he continued. "But you're not allowed to have a Labrador 'cos that's what I'm gonna do when I get married." Tom smirked good naturedly, waving the pen towards Hal in mock threat. His friend smiled back, recovering from his earlier shock, but Tom caught the hint of sadness in the gesture.

Hal was a very complicated person, and Tom knew that he was usually more than capable of keeping his emotions hidden. But this was human Hal who didn't need to hide anything from them anymore. Despite his best friend's obvious discomfort, he couldn't help but recognise that it was a nice feeling to know that whatever was wrong with his mate, it was probably just Hal being daft and over thinking things, rather than the first indication of an imminent murderous rampage.

"Is something wrong mate?"

Hal stared at him in much the same fashion as a rabbit caught in the headlights for a moment, seemingly surprised that he had noticed anything. He quickly schooled his face back to his usual calm collectedness, but it was too late for Tom not to feel just a little hurt that the ex-vampire didn't feel he could confide in him after everything they'd been through.

"No, Tom. Everything's fine. What makes you ask?"

"It's just, I've noticed you looking a bit down in the dumps recently." Hal's eyes dropped to the counter and his mouth tensed slightly. It was enough to confirm to Tom that he was right. "Is it stuff with you and Alex? 'Cos, I know I'm not experienced with girls, but I might be able to help."

Hal smiled at him again, though this time there was genuine warmth to it.

"It's nothing to do with Alex, Tom, and it's nothing for you to worry about. Honestly."

Tom didn't believe him for one second, but if Hal didn't want to talk about it, there was no chance he would be able to convince him to open up. It was better to leave him to it and wait for him to come round on his own.

"Alright mate, just thought I'd ask."

Hal gave him a quick nod of thanks and hurried off towards the kitchens. Tom shook his head as he watched him go. _Same old Hal_ he thought to himself, getting back to the guest book.

* * *

In the quiet haze of mid-afternoon it was easy to forget that two-hundred miles away, all hell seemed to be breaking loose. The grass still held the moisture from a rain shower hours ago, and while the sky was grey and overcast, it didn't take away from the beauty of the landscape. This was her favourite place to watch the world go by in peace. The birds sang busily in the mottled shade of the ancient woodland to the east, insects buzzed and hummed in the unmown meadow sloping downhill towards the pièce de résistance. The tiny, sleepy city spread before her and the towering spires of Canterbury Cathedral in all their glory, perfect, rustic and stunning in the sunlight peeking through the clouds.

And yet to Allison, today was nothing more than a nightmare. She had called Tom at least twenty times with no answer, and that did not bode well. Barry was only small, not the sort of place that one would expect to be the scene of such horror. At least not if you were unaware of any world other than the cosy human one she had had the good fortune to grown up in, safe and devoid of monsters. It had been a rude awakening to find that it was a lie. She was convinced that Tom was involved somehow in the epidemic of suicides that was being reported in the media, sweeping out from the seaside town towards the Welsh capitol in a gruesome, unexplained plague. She had no idea what could be causing it, but she had never felt more helpless.

Absence had done its job well and had indeed made the heart grow fonder. Well, her heart at least. She and Tom had continued to communicate via weekly emails, but their correspondence while lively and friendly in nature was not what her aching heart desired. She knew that Hal had completed his stint in rehab with great success, that Alex had sadly met her end but was living with them now and seemed happy enough, and that Tom was now working in a hotel and progressing well in his new career. But hearing how happy he was without her was like a punch to the gut when all she wanted to read every week was his request for her to return to him. Alas, he had made his feelings perfectly clear when he had sent her away more than five months previously, and she would just have to live with it. It hurt that he didn't feel that she could fit into his life, especially when she was so sure that he was wrong, but his mind had been made up and pushing him wouldn't help the situation in the slightest. She just had to keep her stiff upper lip in place and be content with being his pen pal.

Students still milled about further up the hill where the university buildings sat, a higgledy-piggledy mixture of styles and eras of architecture marking the growth of the institution over time, and most lectures were still going on as usual. But there was a hush and a tension in the air around the campus, as though everybody knew that something was terribly wrong but no one could bring themselves to speak about it. It had been a week since the last full moon, and yet Allison could almost feel the air around her bristling, crackling like static, the feeling that a huge storm was about to break. She shivered and rubbed her arms where the hairs stood up on end despite the warmth of the late summers day.

She was meant to be in a lecture exploring the foundations of property, but as she couldn't reach Tom to check he was alright, the only thing she could bear to do was to sit here on the hill checking her tablet computer for news updates. It made for grim reading. People had been dying in the streets in great numbers all morning, and as a new update came in, the report said it was all because of some sort of chemical gas leak. Or that's what was being reported as the cause anyway. Allison didn't buy it. What sort of gas could make people mindlessly kill themselves? Certainly nothing she had ever heard of. It was a pitiful explanation when you looked closely at it, akin to rage infected monkeys in terms of ridiculousness. To add to the suspicion, Twitter was full of witness accounts from people fleeing across the Severn Bridge into England, some of which, almost lost in the ether of panic over the bodies, interestingly stated that there was no television, phone, radio or broadband signal throughout South Wales. It only served to fuel her certainty that there was some sort of supernatural element involved, and that this was the beginnings of a quite monumental cover-up.

She was two minutes into a news report she had already watched ten times over at least, when the screen of her tablet blinked a few times before fading to black.

"Stupid battery life! I only charged you last night..." she tapped the screen a few times and pressed the start button repeatedly, hoping in vain to bring the small computer back to life. "Oh why won't you work!" Finally, she tossed it to the ground infront of her and folded her arms, glaring at the useless contraption as though **it** was responsible for the problems in Wales.

"Al..."

The tablet buzzed with static suddenly, the screen blinking dark to light again.

"Ahah!" the werewolf exclaimed, picking it up again. She pressed the power button, but again got no response. At least, not the response she expected.

"Alli... Alliso... ALLISON! Can you hear me?"

"What? Who is this?" Allison frowned in disbelief, instinctively holding the device away from herself suspiciously.

"It's A... Ann... Oh twa... ing hell! Hol... on..." The screen blinked into life as clear as day, showing a face that Allison recognised instantly.

"Annie!"

"Is that it, can you see me? How about hear me? Hello?"

"Yes, yes I can hear you! Annie, where are you, I thought you had passed over, or whatever the term is?"

"Oh, Allison! Am I glad to see you! I wish I could explain, really I do, but I haven't got much time. They don't like us communicating outside apparently, they'll probably stop me soon."

"Who will? Are you in purgatory?"

"Yes, but that's not important." Annie shook her head, her face fraught with anxiety. "Allison, I need to know... do you love Tom?"

"I... why do you need to know? What's happening in Wales Annie, is he alright? Is he hurt? I've been trying but I can't get through to him." She rushed sadly, desperately hoping that the ghost knew of his fate.

"I'll tell you everything I can, I promise, but first it's important that I know Allison, please. Do you love him?"

"Yes." She answered without pause. Annie nodded solemnly on the screen.

"And you'd do anything for him?"

"Yes, of course I would. He's in trouble isn't he?"

"Yes, yes he is." The ghost sighed and took a shaky breath. "I'm so sorry Allison, but I have a favour to ask. A really big favour..."

* * *

(So, one down two to go ;) Hope you all enjoyed that. Please do leave a review to let me know what you think, and tell me your guesses for who the other two "helpers" might be.)

(AN: The place that Allison is sitting is actually one of my real world favourite places, and that is a true description of it. I refer you to Rookileaks, which suggests that she is studying in the beautiful city of Canterbury!)


	4. Brave Hearts

**************Disclaimer: Being Human belongs to the great (Lord) Toby Whithouse**

Thanks again for the reviews, follows and faves! This chapter is, quite by accident, rather flipping long. It should also probably carry a few warnings, but I'll let you discover why as you read ;) Prepare to meet helper number two...

**Chapter 4: Brave Hearts**

One down, two to go. Allison had been surprisingly easy to convince, though it had taken her a while to accept that the devil was behind all the trouble in Wales. If she was honest, Annie was shocked at how blasé she herself was being about it now. After her initial horror at the revelation had eased, Allison had shocked Annie with her quiet acceptance whilst she quizzed the ghost for details and analysed the best approach to take. She had calmly stated that she would drive to Wales in a friend's car, packing the essentials and hoping to arrive overnight. She anticipated some trouble along the way, so couldn't be sure of her estimated arrival time. How would she contact Annie to let her know she had reached her destination, a television station that they had worked out must be where the trinity were holed up, on the outskirts of Cardiff? Would Annie's other two helpers meet her there? What did one pack on a road trip towards the apocalypse? If the borders were closed, how would she convince the authorities to let her through?

Annie didn't really have an answer to any of those questions, but she could only admire the werewolf's strength and logic in asking them so composedly.

They arranged that Allison should go straight to Honolulu Heights, parking outside and staying in the car, avoiding trouble until her two as yet unidentified apocalypse-averting colleagues arrived. Annie would try to keep in touch via the tablet computer, but she couldn't promise anything with the Men With Sticks And Ropes holding Purgatory to ransom. They would then make their way to the television station together and... well... Annie had no idea, but they would figure something out!

And with that, off Allison had gone, to make her way, alone and terrified, though she hid it well, to face the horrors of Cardiff without a second thought for her own safety.

Annie felt suddenly and overwhelmingly moved to tears at Allison's devotion to a man she had hardly spent any time at all with, but who she knew she loved enough to risk her life for. Not for the first time, she felt anger well up inside her at the injustice of this situation, at how unfair it was that these people, good people, were suffering so. She couldn't even consider the possibility that she might fail now. If she did, if Allison or anyone else died because of her, she would never forgive herself. The gravity of the situation hit her again.

She halted in her determined march through the corridors, taking a shaky breath to steady herself and carrying on again, head held high, determined and resolute. She would succeed, and that was the end of it. Onwards to her next port of call.

Tom had been easy. Now she faced a challenge.

Alex or Hal next?

_Alex_, she thought to herself, pretending it was a random decision and had nothing to do with the fact that she was terrified to take a look into Hal's past at the fear of what she would find.

She hardly knew Alex at all, so in the vague hope that she would find a supernatural being with a connection to the young ghost, she decided to take a quick look at what she had missed since the warehouse explosion via Purgatory's strange system of historical CCTV. What she found surprised her.

Alex was brilliant, forgiving yet fierce, funny but firm when she needed to be. Annie decided that she liked her a lot.

She hadn't meant to take too long watching, but quickly she found that the escapades of the trio were compulsive viewing. It was like Big Brother with her friends as the contestants, and a fair few deaths by the looks of things. That part she wasn't so keen on... Convincing herself that this was in no way akin to eavesdropping and was completely justifiable, she kept watching.

"Yes!" she clapped when Hal kissed Alex, choosing to ignore the fact that it was probably due to his drinking blood earlier in the day. "Finally! It's not like it's been bloody obvious that she wanted you from the start or anything!" They moved to kiss again but were interrupted by the front door slamming shut. "Tom! No! Go away you twit, they were... Oh my God. I need to stop watching this. I've become a cheerleader for Hal and Alex. What has happened to me...?" she stood from her position cross legged on the floor and looked around, hoping no one else had entered the small, bare side room she had chosen to conduct her viewing. Luckily she was alone still. And no closer to finding an answer to her problem.

Everyone Alex had formed an attachment with had crossed over. She had been briefly cheered at the discovery of a certain Lady Mary who looked a good candidate for Hal, until Annie had realised that the woman was stark raving bonkers and had tried to stake him. Perhaps not such a good candidate then, considering what a twat he was bound to be when bad.

Back to square one, she decided to wander Alex's corridor, searching for clues. She didn't hold out much hope. This was impossible!

She picked a door at random, a generic white painted thing from the interior of a house, and wandered through it discretely, despite the fact she didn't have to. This felt so much like spying, an invasion of privacy she wasn't entitled to, but it was necessary. She just had to keep reminding herself of that.

Inside, a birthday party was in full swing. There sat Alex at the table, smiling in delight as a large man Annie assumed must be her dad came into the room from the kitchen carrying a cake, topped with two candles in the shape of numbers. 23. This was her twenty-third birthday. Her last, if the vague information the ghost had managed to garner from watching the memories of the past five months were anything to go by. It made it all the more poignant, and Annie felt herself getting emotional again.

The guests gathered in the darkened room sang raucously, a loud chorus of Happy Birthday ringing out with a clear Scottish lilt. The three boys at Alex's back, the two youngest clearly excited by the prospect of cake, the eldest hovering just behind staring down at a Nintendo DS, must have been her brothers, Annie concluded. Around the room were other merry guests of all ages and levels of inebriation, all having a thoroughly good time. Annie wished she was there as part of the party.

She moved closer as Alex blew out the candles, laughter rising up as they turned out to be the kind that never went out, no matter how hard you blew. Coming to a stop beside a stocky, grey haired man watching the proceedings with perhaps the most reminiscent, warm smile Annie thought she had ever seen, she tried to hold in her tears. She didn't know why, it was hardly as if anyone could see her balling her eyes out, but it felt wrong still. She wasn't the one who had lost all this after all. It made her respect Alex all the more for making the decision to stick with Tom and Hal, for looking after the vampire when he had been so involved in her death, for being there for Tom as the big sister he had never even dreamed he might have.

"I can't do it to them." she decided sadly, shaking her head. "They lost her, and they've already been through so much. How do I shatter their belief system by telling them monsters exist? She didn't want that. She didn't want them to know. But things are going to get so much worse if I don't... Ah, bloody Hal! Why did you have to get her involved!? Why did you have to go bad again! We are going to have serious words if I ever see you again!" An angry tear slid down her cheek as she recounted again the injustice of the whole situation. But that wasn't important now. What she needed to decide was just how she was going to find and convince Alex's poor father to go to Wales and help stop the devil. She hadn't wanted to involve any humans, but if it was her only option...

"I need a miracle." She muttered sadly to herself.

"Eh, pardon me pet, but you do realise you're talking to yourself don' you?"

Annie looked up, startled.

"What?"

"And, I know the old memory's gone to shite, but... I don' really remember you bein' here the first time around?"

Annie stared at the man beside her, who was looking directly at her, frowning down with a kind sort of concern in his eyes. She opened her mouth, but found she couldn't speak.

"Well spit it out pet."

"You can see me? You're not part of the memory?" She blurted out, hoping she didn't sound too rude.

"No. Well, I'm there, see," he pointed away to the left, and sure enough, there was a perfect, oblivious copy of himself sat on the sofa, beer in hand, watching the celebrations unfold.

"What are you doing here?" she asked curiously.

"I pop in from time te time. This place'll bore your tits off if you don't find something te do, so I look back at the memories of us all together. Happy stuff you know?"

Annie nodded. She knew all too well.

"Fur aboots se'ya?" the man said suddenly.

"What?" Annie managed, still shell shocked.

"Fur aboots se'ya?" the man repeated patiently. Annie looked blankly at him.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"Ohhhhh! Of course, you're a southerner!" he laughed jovially. "Sorry, I'm an old Scot, I forget my accent's a little strong for your lot. I'll translate. From where abouts are you?"

"Uhh, England."

"I guessed that much from the accent pet." The man chuckled. "I meant what are you doing here? Did you know our Alex? I take it you're a ghostie too?"

"No, no I didn't, but I wish I had." She glanced over at the young woman at the table, now opening cards, still with that huge smile on her face. "Yes I am a ghost. And you are too...?" She trailed off, an idea suddenly coming to her.

"Aye, I am that."

"And... you're related to Alex I take it?"

"Aye."

"How? If you don't mind me asking." Annie pressed when he offered no further explanation.

"Oh, I'm her granddaddy. Well, they used to try to call me tha', but I told em where they could stick it eh!" he grinned widely. "I mean look at me, I'm no' an old fart! I mean, I suppose I must've been 'cos I died, but apart from that, I'm grand! Obviously my heart had other ideas. Poor lads, losing their poor wee sister, God rest her soul, and then me a few months later." He rambled, watching the four siblings in the memory fondly. He came back to himself suddenly and smiled at her. "No, like I used to tell them, you can call me Dougie."

"You're her granddad?!" Annie couldn't stop some of the delight showing in her voice.

"Aye, tha's what I said wee ghostie. I'm her mother's father. Silly bloody girl, abandoning those bairns like that. I'll never forgive her for that' no matter that she's my daughter. She broke those kids when she left." He shook his head and watched Alex and her brothers again, then turned back to Annie, frowning confusedly. "Why do you want te know?"

"Um... Dougie, have you seen what's going on outside?" Annie began carefully.

"Have I heck! It's mental eh! I went te check on the boys and their dad and they're alright, but still. You don' expect this sort of thing do ye, not even in bloody _Wales_."

"Yes but... do you know what's causing it?"

"No. Not a clue pet. Why? Do you?"

Annie sincerely wished she didn't. But alas, the time for explaining the awful truth had come again.

"Ok Dougie, well, there's no easy way to explain this but... it's sort of the uh... the devil."

"Wha? No fuckin' way!"

"Yes, well um..." she blinked at his unexpected choice of language, taken aback for a moment, "I'm afraid so. The thing is, I'm trying to stop it getting any worse. And I think I might need your help."

As Annie explained, recounting everything that had happened in just that one day, she was surprised by just how calm she felt. She had a job to do, a task she herself thought seemed impossible, and yet already she may well have two down, one to go, if she could convince Dougie to help. She felt real hope again that perhaps, just perhaps, they could win after all.

All the time she spoke, he stood quietly, listening patiently while she explained the very worst things in the world to him. He hadn't even realised that vampires and werewolves were real, let alone that the devil existed. His smile when Annie told him that Alex had been living as a ghost since her death, and that he could see her again, almost made her cry.

"So me and this Allison, and whoever else you find, we have to wake 'em up, make 'em friends again, and then they have to do this ritual thing to kill the devil and save the world?" he asked when she had finished.

"That's it in a nutshell." She answered, still not sure she believed it all herself.

"Right. Simple then eh? Ah well, best get going then. Where to next?" he asked, making his way towards the door back into Purgatory.

"So you'll help?" she smiled, following him out into the gloomy corridor.

"Aye of course I will! I never did much in my life, but I was always there for my family. I loved my wife when she was alive, and I loved my kids and my grandkids. I might be dead, but they need me now more than they ever did."

Annie just nodded. There was nothing she could think to say.

"So. Just this Hal bloke to sort out now?"

"Mmmmm." Annie confirmed, walking slowly beside him.

"Have you got someone in mind for him?"

"No."

"Oh. What no one?"

"Not that I trust with this. The truth is, I don't really know much about him. The only people I know who mean anything to him are either stuck in here or are out there with him."

"But you managed with Alex. So all you need te do is go through some of his doors like you did with her? That'd work wouldn't it?"

"I don't know. I was hoping I wouldn't have to find out."

Heading down the corridor, she found herself filled with worry again. Worry that she couldn't succeed, worry that the world was doomed because of a vampire who had burnt all of the bridges he had ever been offered. Worry that it was too late, that the devil had triumphed already.

She pushed the thoughts away for the umpteenth time. She had Allison and Dougie to help now, and things were moving forward at least. She couldn't entertain the idea of failure, because it wasn't an option.

The time had finally come to face Hal's demons.

* * *

Twenty-one days. It had been twenty-one whole days since she had become human again, and Alex didn't think she could possibly be any happier.

Never before had she appreciated the simple things in life so much. Food, sleep, being able to be seen by ordinary people, not being crippled by boredom for a good three quarters of every day, being fully in possession of all five of her senses, being able to change her clothes, more food, more sleep, and sex.

Ok, well maybe not sex, not yet, but she was working on it.

If she forgot that, and took away the undeniable fact that rentaghosting was much better than having to walk everywhere, then everything was pretty much perfect.

Today was definitely a day for reflecting on their change of situation. Tonight would be the first full moon since their brush with the devil, and though Tom seemed ok with it on the surface, Alex knew full well that he was putting on a brave face. It was odd that despite the fact that Hal was very obviously not a vampire any more, and that she herself was very obviously not a ghost, a tiny part of her was still just a bit scared that Tom would still transform. The absence of his scars was the only outward sign that the wolf was gone, so it was harder to believe that he was free of his curse. He had voiced his concerns to her a few nights previously, and although she had tried to laugh it off, to convince him he was being daft, she couldn't help but worry.

She looked at her watch. Seven thirty-five. Ten minutes to go before the full moon was fully risen.

She and Hal were sat in the lounge watching TV, cuddled together on the sofa as was their usual position of an evening. This time however, both sat stiffly, acutely aware that quite possibly the most important few minutes of Tom's life were looming in the near future. With five minutes to go, Tom broke the tense silence himself by pounding down the stairs loudly, making his way into the lounge and straight to the front window.

"Are you alright Tom?" Hal asked after a minute, while the hopefully ex-werewolf stared up at the sky through a gap in the blinds.

"Dunno. Ask me in a minute. What's the time?"

"Seven forty-four." Alex answered, trying to sound unconcerned. Tom just nodded, not taking his eyes away from the moon shining brightly through the clouds.

Another minute ticked by, and another, and another, all three of them silent until Alex spoke again.

"Seven Forty-seven." She beamed. "That's it Tom. You're officially human!"

Tom finally turned away from the window, a huge grin spread across his face. Alex jumped up and grabbed him into a huge hug, Hal following her lead, his intended hand shake forfeited when Tom pulled him into a hug as well, clearly chuffed by the confirmation that the wolf had gone.

"I can't believe it. I didn't really let myself believe until now, just in case."

"Well believe it baby!" Alex laughed happily. Tom looked back over at the window thoughtfully.

"I need to go out."

"What? Where?" Hal asked, frowning concernedly, returning back to the sofa.

"I don't know, just out. I haven't been outside at night like this since I were a kid, before the transformations started. I need to just... see it. I'll go to the woods probably. To McNair's grave. It's just where I need to be."

Do you want us to come too?" Alex asked uneasily. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Hal quirk an eyebrow at the offer, but he remained silent.

"No, you're alright, I just sort of... need to be on my own. But thanks anyway." He collected his old wax jacket from the coat stand and shrugged it on, calling a surprisingly calm and collected "See you in the morning!" to his two bewildered friends.

For the first time, Alex realised that the curse, while certainly a bad thing for the majority of the time, may be difficult for him to live without in some small way. For her it had been simple, a slight inconvenience to have lost certain elements of being a ghost that would make life as a human simpler, the rentaghosting in particular. For Tom, as he had explained to her in a quiet moment alone together the day after they had beaten Hatch, it was odd not to feel what he could only describe as another living thing in his head constantly. Never speaking, and not a conscious soul, but there all the same. She supposed that after living with it all his life, it must feel almost lonely to be without it, however terrible the rest of the curse had been.

Suddenly her mind turned to Hal, and she wondered if he felt bereft of any aspect of his vampirism. Not all of it of course, it was obvious he had desperately wanted it gone all the time he had been fighting the blood lust before the change. Well, her Hal at least. She tried not to think about _Lord Harry_, seeing as he was gone for good, but the fact that her Hal had been that man once still turned her stomach every now and then when the memory of his arrogant smirk crept into her thoughts.

But then again, this Hal wasn't exactly the same man she had known before either. Shy, tidy, irritable, particular, posh Hal was still there, but there was another side to him now too. For all his avoidance of a physical relationship between the two of them, she still caught the heat and cheeky spark in his eyes that hadn't been there before, and he was far more willingly touchy feely than he had ever been. She wasn't sure if he knew how badly he was teasing her, but she had a funny feeling part of him was quite enjoying it. At first, she had assumed that the difference in his personality was all to do with him not having to worry about the blood lust, his stress dissipating with the end of the curse. But as she quietly accepted that he really was neither good Hal nor bad Hal anymore, it began to dawn on her that that wasn't entirely true either. It seemed more accurate to say that he was actually both together, and that meant that there were elements of both personalities in him.

It was those moments every now and then, when he forgot his stupid morality and courtship thing, and looked at her with his trademark sexy, starey eyes, she felt her heart beat faster and wanted to drop whatever she was doing in favour of taking him to the nearest bedroom. Or bathroom. Or table top, she really wasn't fussy. But that was when the guilt set in. Because _that_ wasn't her Hal. That was when she was forced to admit that even though he had made her feel the ghost equivalent of physically sick, bad Hal had been quite possibly the sexiest thing she'd ever seen. Which was wrong, not only because he was a revolting, murdering scumbag, but because he was the man that her Hal, _good_ Hal, despised himself for being.

She shook her head clear and sat down beside him again on the sofa. Without her even having to ask, he raised his arm for her to nestle into him. She smiled and settled back against him, thinking of the ways that he had changed for the better.

"Hal?" she began, lacing her fingers with his and tracing little patterns on his wrist with her free hand.

"Hmm?" he answered distractedly, his attention already back on the documentary they had been watching. Well, _he_ had been watching it. She had been counting the minutes before the full moon rose fully. She hesitated for a moment, but decided to ask her question anyway. They should be able to share anything if they were going to be a proper couple.

"Is there anything you miss about being a vampire?" She felt him tense slightly against her back and wondered if she had overstepped the mark.

"Why do you ask?" he replied, his voice a mixture of confusion and interest that she hadn't expected.

"Well I just thought, Tom seems to sort of miss some aspects of being a werewolf, and I know I miss a few things about being a ghost. So I wondered if there was anything you missed about being supernatural now it's gone." She explained quickly, trying not to sound too flustered now that it seemed she might actually have the chance to get an insight into the enigma that was her boyfriend.

He remained silent, so she shifted around so that she could see his face, his arm still resting over her shoulder. He looked as though he was thinking about what to say, lost in his own little world, so she left him to it and used the opportunity to lose herself in his eyes for a few minutes.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss anything at all, but for the most part, I'm glad it's gone." He concluded eventually.

"Glad? You're _glad_..." Alex frowned slightly at his choice of words. Glad wasn't exactly the term she would use. Over the moon, chuffed to bits or piss your pants happy perhaps, but not _glad_. He chuckled amusedly and kissed her forehead.

"You know me. I don't really do great emotional celebrations of joy, but if I did, I'd still be leaping around like a fool even now. Actually," he brought his free hand up to stroke up and down her arm gently, "especially now."

She smiled at him and closed the distance between them, nuzzling her nose against his briefly.

"What _do_ you miss?"

"The accelerated healing ability was quite handy. And the enhanced eyesight and hearing too. Once upon a time I would have said the extended lifecycle was a positive as well, but living forever does tend to get rather tedious after a while." His smile betrayed his good mood despite the seriousness of the conversation. _Yes_, she thought. _Hal has definitely relaxed_. But something still niggled.

"So you are happy then? Sometimes I wonder." She cast her eyes downwards, feeling suddenly uncertain again. He might be more relaxed, but something still seemed off with him every now and then. Sometimes she caught him looking pensive, though he wouldn't tell her what was wrong, dismissing it as nothing for her to worry about.

He moved the hand stroking her arm up to cup her cheek, rubbing his thumb gently along the line of her jaw. She looked up at him, meeting his eyes and almost finding herself lost again.

"I'm happier now than I have been for a very long time. You and Tom, and our little human paradise mean everything to me. Whatever happens in the future, remember that." He leant his forehead down to rest against hers and closed his eyes. The sentimentality of the gesture made her wonder what it was he thought might happen in the future to threaten their happiness. She let the thought go. Better to convince him that everything was going to be alright, rather than encourage his melancholy.

She tilted her face up to his and brought their lips together softly. He responded instantly, kissing her lightly and bringing his finger tips around to brush against the back of her neck tenderly. Alex shivered and wrapped her own arms around his neck, inching herself closer to him. She couldn't help but smile when he leant back against the arm of the sofa, pulling her with him and deepening the kiss. It was nice not to feel as though she was attacking him for once. She tested him, shifting to straddle him, her knees resting on either side of his thighs. It seemed his answer to this was to thread a hand into her hair and slip his tongue past her lips, so she took that as a good sign and threw herself into kissing him back.

The closest they had come to this was her rather heated interview at the Barry Grand, and even then he had stopped her before she could get too carried away. She hadn't spoken to him for an hour after that, too annoyed to respond to his apologies. Since then, and after her teasing in the kitchen on the morning of her first day at work, he had hardly touched her at all apart from the cuddles on the sofa. All the more reason to enjoy this for as long as she could then.

She stroked her hands down his chest, inching them under the hem of his t-shirt, making him sigh against her lips at the contact. All the while, his tongue massaged hers expertly, leaving her reeling at the sensation, and even more annoyed that she had been missing out for so long. She took the chance to move her hips against his, testing him again. He pulled his lips from hers, and she thought for a moment that she had gone too far, until he brought his mouth down to her throat, kissing, sucking and nipping at her frantically. She wondered briefly if he had finally lost his control, if this was actually it, before his onslaught caused all rational thought to flee her brain. She pulled his shirt up, and to her surprise and delight, he broke away from her neck to allow her to pull it over his head, moving back to her lips when the material was clear. She threw it carelessly towards the bar, running her hands over his stomach eagerly as she tried to keep up with his fraught kissing.

As her hands moved almost of their own accord to his trousers, unclasping the button at the top with ease, he groaned. She revelled in the sound for a split second, before his own hands caught her wrists gently and he broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers again. His breath was ragged, as was her own.

"What now!? Tom's out for the whole night, we've got the place to ourselves, we're both consenting adults, _more_ than consenting, so what's the problem?" She rasped out impatiently.

"Alex..." he began breathlessly.

"If you say the words "taking it slowly", I swear to God Hal I will hurt you."

"I'm sorry, I just can't."

She growled in annoyance and glared at him.

"That's not good enough."

"What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to want this! I want you to tell me why not at least, not just try to palm me off with excuses!"

He sighed and closed his eyes wearily, removing one of his hands from her wrists to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Alex..." he began again. She shook her head and decided to prove her point. She ground her hips against him again. He jolted with surprise, opening his eyes and staring at her disbelievingly for a moment. She expected him to shout at her, to furiously insist she stop, but his eyes flickered shut, and she realised she had been wrong. He did want it, he just wasn't letting himself. She continued to move over him, wondering if perhaps the night wasn't ruined after all. He brought his hands to her hips, resting them there lightly, seemingly wrestling with himself. She silently willed him to let her carry on, to pick up where he had left off before and just let them be together finally.

"Alex stop." He eventually said, almost too quietly for her to hear him. She pretended she hadn't. "Alex, please..." His tone was firmer this time, but again she continued, her insistence battling with his morality. He hissed out a breath and bit his bottom lip, his cheeks a deep shade of red, and she thought for a moment she might be winning. But again, he proved her wrong. He gripped her waist and stopped her himself, opening his eyes to look at her, an odd mixture of heat and disapproval. "I can't." he repeated.

"Why the hell not!? You clearly want to! Why won't you just let yourself go and enjoy this? Why do you have to ruin it every time?"

"I... I can't explain it, I just..."

"Can't, yea I heard."

She shuffled off of him awkwardly, suddenly eager to be as far away from him as possible. He followed and caught her hand in his before she stormed through the living room door.

"Alex, please don't take this personally..."

"Personally!" she huffed an angry laugh, "Of course it's personal! Look, I've got the message now so it's alright, you don't have to worry anymore." She yanked her hand from his grip but he caught her again, wrapping his arms around her and cupping her face in his hands. She struggled for a second before giving in, angry at herself for letting him win so easily.

"I'm not trying to hurt you Alex, believe me that couldn't be further from my intentions. I love you."

"Well you **have** hurt me." She spat, refusing to meet his gaze. "I need to know if things are going to change, because if they're not, there's no point in us even trying anymore!"

"You'd leave me? Because of this?" he sounded so hurt that she almost gave in.

"I don't know Hal. But I can't carry on pretending I'm alright with this because I'm not." Her voice cracked as angry tears built at the corners of her eyes.

"Alex, it's just sex. It isn't that important."

"No it's not _just _sex. It's not just kissing, or touching, or cuddling, or wanting to share a bed with you. It's rejection. You're rejecting me every time I go near you. Do you know how that feels?"

"I have an idea." He answered tightly.

"Well then, you'll understand." She wiped her eyes, determined not to let him see her cry. He let his arms drop from around her waist.

"You think I want this situation?"

"I don't know what you want. If you'd tell me what the problem is, that would be a start at least!"

"I've told you Alex, I can't." he sighed sadly.

"Well then I _can't _either!" she cried angrily. "Everything's finally perfect and you've cocked it up, again! Well fucking done!"

"Then if you'd leave me so easily, if our physical relationship is _that_ important to you, you obviously don't love me as much as I foolishly thought you did!" his frustration finally boiled over, but Alex felt nothing but anger towards him in that moment. Before she knew what she was doing, she had slapped him hard across the face.

"How can you think that? I loved you enough that I stopped Tom from killing you, twice! I loved you enough to stay here with you despite everything that's happened! Apparently I should have just stayed with my family!" she let her tears fall openly, not bothering to stem the flow anymore.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." He said quietly, rubbing his cheek where she'd hit him.

"Not sorry enough to tell me the truth I bet." He looked down at the floor shamefully, and she nodded in acceptance. "I'm going to bed. I'd say don't bother disturbing me, but there's no hope of that is there." She muttered bitterly, leaving him standing in the doorway alone.

Later that night, when she had already cried herself to sleep, falling into a fitful mess of waking and dreaming through exhaustion rather than the desire to rest, she stirred at the sound of her bedroom door opening. She barely opened her eyes, too tired to react. Light briefly spilled into the room before the door shut again. She couldn't see him with her back to the door, but she knew it was him, and in the back of her mind, she was surprised that he had been so bold as to come into her room at all. She began to drift off again, not caring that he was stood still watching her, content to let him think she hadn't heard him. Her eyelids fluttered open again when she felt him gently lower himself onto the bed behind her, resting an arm over her protectively and pulling her to him. She snuggled against him gladly, her anger already dissipating.

"I'm so sorry. Please believe me, this is for your own good. It might not seem it, but it is." He whispered against the back of her neck. He sounded tearful, so she sleepily felt for his hand resting over her stomach, and laced their fingers together. He placed a feather-light kiss to her neck, and gave her a gentle squeeze.

By the time she woke in the morning, he was gone. She thought she might have dreamed the encounter, until she turned and found a single, perfect origami rose resting on the pillow behind her.

It was enough of an apology for now.

* * *

(So, helper number two is OC Dougie. Two down, one to go. Any thoughts on the identity of person number three? Please review, you quite literally make my week! Thanks for reading! x)


	5. Hope Springs Eternal

**********Disclaimer: Being Human belongs to the great (Lord) Toby Whithouse**

So sorry that this chapter has been so long coming. But it's here now, and I really, really hope you enjoy it. It's a bit packed, but the threads are all starting to come together now... Thank you so much for the reviews, follows and faves, they mean the world! x

**Chapter 5: Hope Springs Eternal**

"Right. Perfect. We're here." Annie nodded, standing at the end of the corridor and willing herself to move forward, unsuccessfully.

"Aye, we are indeed wee ghostie. So..." Dougie hovered by her side, a small amused smile on his face.

"So?"

"So, shouldn't we be getting on with looking in some of these doors? I don't suppose we'll get very far by just standing here all day Pet."

"No. We won't." Annie replied sadly. Dougie gave her a shoulder a sympathetic squeeze.

"How about I pick our first one Petal, to get us started?"

"Sounds like a plan." She nodded, flashing him a grateful look. He walked forwards in his slow, ever so slightly decrepit style, standing in front of a dark stained door and turning to face her again.

"Ready?"

She swallowed and answered hesitantly, "As I'll ever be."

Annie wasn't ready. Not in the slightest.

Hal had been good for more than fifty years before this current stint of evil. He said it ran in cycles, each longer than the last. But if that were true, that still meant that almost certainly, considering her experience of vampires in general, he had spent over half his life being a sadistic bastard. That therefore had to mean that behind these doors were over two-hundred-and-fifty years of things she really didn't want to see.

More than a 50:50 chance then that she was about to see him, her former friend and housemate, at his very worst.

No. She definitely wasn't ready.

_Be tough_, she thought to herself, _I always knew it would come to this. Just remember what he used to be like_... She glanced up and saw a picture hanging on the wall above her head. That wasn't right. It was completely alien in the bleak corridors, pictures didn't hang here, just broken plaster and peeling paintwork. The subjects of the portrait were even more remarkable.

"Wait!" she shouted, making Dougie jump.

"What? What's wrong Pet?" the old man asked, looking back at her confusedly, hand still resting on the door handle.

She reached up gingerly and took the picture from the wall, staring at it disbelievingly.

"Think of the man that arrived with Leo and Pearl..." she finished under her breath, their two smiling faces looking back up at her. "This is a sign. I don't know how, or who from, butI know what we have to do!"

Not long after, Annie and Dougie found themselves walking down a corridor slightly brighter than the rest, and filled with all manner of doors, all crammed together along practically every inch of wall. Some way down the passageway, they came to a set of two very familiar wooden doors resting together, and haloed in white light.

"You'll have to wait here Dougie, you haven't passed over properly yet so you can't come in. Actually, why is that? Sorry, that's rude, I shouldn't have asked. It's none of my business." Annie faltered, shaking her head and holding up a hand apologetically.

"No, it's alright Pet. I suppose I just couldn't, not without knowing what happened to Alex. Not knowing those boys and their dad needed me. I'm not much good to them like this, but I couldn't leave them all the same."

"How did you get here? You haven't been... gone, that long." She asked, trying to be tactful.

"I died in the hospital, wandered about for a wee bit, followed someone else through their door 'cause I got curious what was in 'ere. The bloke I followed found this big old door wi' a light like that," he gestured to Leo and Pearl's doors, "I just walked for a bit and found a corridor full of memories. Gathered this was it, you know, where we all end up. Eh, maybe this is my unfinished business? Saving the world, saving Alex. Somethin' like that." He smiled hopefully.

"Maybe." She smiled back, hoping in turn that he was right. She sighed and turned back to the pair of doors, the same two that she had witnessed the ghost and werewolf walk through into their afterlife, not so long ago. "I won't be long. Just, wait here and don't move ok?"

"Yes ma'am." Dougie chuckled, leaning back against the wall next to the doors. Go on wi' ye and stop worrying. I'll be fine. What trouble can I get myself into out here eh?"

Annie shrugged in submission and knocked on one of the doors, agreeing that he was unlikely to have any problems waiting for her. Despite waiting for the door to open, she still jumped when it actually did, not really sure what to expect. Through the light, a face appeared. A very confused face.

"Annie?" Pearl exclaimed as she stepped out into the corridor. "What are you doing here?" the ghost smiled, pulling Annie into an embrace and smiling warmly. That surprised her, given that she and Pearl hadn't exactly seen eye to eye the last time they had met. Perhaps passing over had made her less of a cow?

"Hi, Pearl. That's a bit hard to explain I'm afraid. I need your help, you _and_ Leo."

"Help? With what? Not what's going on outside?"

"Yes. But more specifically, with Hal."

"Hal? Why, is he in trouble? He's not gone back on the blood has he? Oh my God, he has hasn't he?" Pearl folded her arms over her chest irritably. "I knew he'd do something like this, I just knew it. The man is bloody incapable of looking after himself. I had to do his washing for twenty years you know. Twenty years, and not just washing, oh no. Washing, ironing, starching those bloody shirts of his, folding everything up and putting it away in his drawers, and he'd only go behind me and fold everything again just the way he liked it. I refused to help him get rid of spiders eventually, until he learnt to do his own washing. That soon taught him. Sorry, I'm rambling aren't I..."

"Um, yes, yes you are, a little bit." Annie smiled uncomfortably. She gestured at the open door. "Could I come in? I need to explain what's happened, and what I need from you both, and it might be best if Leo hears it all at the same time. I'm on quite a tight schedule."

"Of course, come in. What about your friend?" Pearl frowned at Dougie, who gave her a littler wave and a smile. She waved back dubiously. "He's a little old for you isn't he?" she whispered, trying and failing to be covert. Luckily, the Scot seemed not to hear.

"Oh, God no! He's not... he's not my _boyfriend_! He's helping me with this thing I need to talk to you about. But he hasn't passed over fully yet, so he's going to wait out here."

"Ah. You'd best come in then. Leo'll be happy to see you."

"Let's hope so. You two might be the only thing standing in the way of the apocalypse at the moment. No pressure."

* * *

The gleaming black car pulled up outside the television studios sedately, almost normally, not at all out of place infront of the gloomy concrete building, on a gloomy Welsh morning. The grey suited man that fled from the interior before it had even stopped even looked natural in a place usually filled with executives. The revolver clasped firmly in his hands, his uneasy stance and his wary glances as he made his way to the front entrance shattered the illusion.

Rook picked his way around the bodies at the front steps, Hatch's location now confirmed to him. He crept inside, stepping over some visitors in reception, now prone on the floor with various sharp instruments protruding from gashes in their chests and heads. He ignored the dark haired receptionist slumped back open eyed in her chair, a trail of blood running down her chin a chest. He made his way through the corridors past yet more bodies, following the trail of corpses past the stairs, their base littered with those who had flung themselves from the upper flights. Two security guards slumped either side of a wide double doorway, one with his keys held firmly in blistered fingers beside an electrical socket, the other, mouth open, tongue swollen and face an ashen grey, hanging limply by his tie from one of the door handles, gave Rook the hunch he needed. Making sure not to touch the electrocuted man, smoke still rising from his blackened hair, he closed his eyes, counted to three, and burst through the door next to the hanging guard.

The studio itself was eerily silent and still, with no signs of life immediately evident. The crew lay behind the cameras, all dead, headphones, clipboards and microphones all still in place. He searched the room quickly, making a sweep past the bodies, not looking too closely at the victims. _No care, all responsibility_. Hatch was nowhere to be seen. The chair behind the desk turned towards the door he had entered through, and the monitors displaying a screen with an apology that _technical issues have interrupted this broadcast_, made Rook heave a shuddering sigh of relief and sink to his knees weakly.

Phillip had done his job and shut the signal down in time. Hatch had failed to send out his message. He still had time to put this right.

Rook sat back on his heels and looked around at the bodies on the floor for the first time. His brows knit together with confusion as he recognised two of the corpses. Flipping the safety on his gun and pocketing it, he scrabbled over to Tom and Hal, checking the werewolf for a pulse. It was hard to locate, weak and thread, but there all the same. Safe to assume that Hal would have one too, though with a heart that he knew would beat only a few times a minute, there was no point trying to find it. He watched them for a moment, their chests barely moving, and decided that he could do nothing for them. Whatever their plan had been it had clearly not worked. And their safety was not his responsibility, not when there were so many other people to save.

He got up slowly and began to walk away, but something stopped him. He turned to face them again. They had clearly had some sort of a plan. It could still work, if they could be roused. He took a step towards them before stopping again. No. For now, he had his plan B. If things didn't improve in the next 24 hours, if he couldn't locate Hatch, he would come back for them. Wake them, or find them if they had woken themselves. Then perhaps they could be of use.

Not yet though. Not while there were other options.

He walked out feeling more confident than when he had entered the studio, though still on edge. Making his way out of the building and back to the car, he climbed inside and instructed his driver carefully.

"Back to the Archive please. As quickly as possible."

"Yes Sir."

"No rest for the wicked."

* * *

Dougie's wife had always told him off for not listening. He called it nagging, but she hadn't liked the term, and told him off for using it. He loved her to pieces, but she had had one hell of a problem with moaning at him. Of course, he saw himself as completely innocent. After all, it wasn't his fault he had never grown out of the boyish curiosity that kept him wandering off and poking his nose in where it wasn't wanted.

So when Annie left him alone, bored and restless, in a corridor full of unfamiliar doors, it was inevitable that he was going to have a quick peek inside.

"Bah, what harm can it do?" he shrugged, pushing off from the wall he was leant against and ambling over to a group of three doors set close together. "Eenie meany miney... mo!" he grinned and pointed triumphantly at the door his rhyme had chosen, shuffling towards it and gripping the handle tightly. "I spy with my little eye..." he pushed it, poking his head around the gap he had created. "Eh? What the hell's goin' on here then?" He frowned and strolled further into the room.

In the middle of a bare bedroom, a man sat silently in a wooden chair, head hanging down exhaustedly. _No_, Dougie noted, _not just sat, bound and gagged_ _too_.

"Who's done this to ye then fella? Who are ye?"

He paced closer slowly, crouching to get a better look at the man. Dark hair a few inches longer than it ought to be and full of grease, forehead beaded with sweat, eyes red rimmed, cheeks a paltry pale colour and blotchy. His arms and legs were tied with strong rope, his wrists clearly rubbed raw under the unbuttoned cuffs of his shirt. The greying garment clung to him damply, and had clearly seen better days, his dark trousers too soiled and ruined. In one corner, positioned neatly, sat a pair of shiny black shoes, discarded braces and a bow tie.

"Is this one of those weird sex games?" Dougie mused, taking a step back to look for implements of torture. He jumped and clutched his chest as the door on the opposite side of the room opened suddenly. "Jesus Christ! Nearly gave me a bloody heart attack! Again..."

The woman who had opened the door earlier, Pearl he thought Annie had called her, came bustling in carrying a wash cloth, a towel, a plate of food and a cup.

"Are you awake?" she asked the man in the chair, setting down her load on the floorboards. The man grunted in answer, but didn't move. "Good, you can eat and drink something then. I brought you up a cup of tea, strong mind, and with sugar. Not that horrible weak black tea you like. And some food too, shepherds pie. Leo says you need to keep your strength up. God knows why he bothers, but he insists you need feeding so here I am."

"I don't want anything." The man mumbled sourly. Pearl was having none of it. She strode over to face him, her hands on her hips.

"Don't be daft, of course you do. You must be starving."

"I want blood..."

"Well want doesn't get, that's what my mother says. Or used to say." A wistful look clouded the woman's features but was gone in an instant, her resolve holding. "At least drink your tea."

"No."

"You bloody well will."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes." She got no further response, so with an irritated sigh, she held out her hand and summoned the towel and wash cloth. Without waiting for permission, she stepped swiftly over to the man and proceeded to thrust the cloth in his face. He sat up sharply and tried to pull away from her, straining at the ropes holding him to the chair.

"Get that infernal thing away from me bitch! I'm not a child!"

"You ought to be glad with a tongue like that! I would have washed your mouth out with soap by now if you were! You're lucky you're here at all. If it weren't for Leo insisting we look after you, I would have thrown you onto the street, chair an' all!"

"Why don't you then?" the man growled through gritted teeth, glaring up at her.

"Oh yes, you'd love that wouldn't you. Back to your horrible little vampire chums where you can drown your sorrows with the first poor soul that walks your way!"

"Yes, I would actually. Now let me out of this FUCKING CHAIR!" he roared, his face turning red with rage and breath ragged. He struggled and thrashed violently against his restraints, shouting wordlessly.

"Hal! Hal stop it, there are people downstairs, they'll hear you!"

"I don't care!" He stopped thrashing suddenly and went limp again, head hanging down dejectedly, body wracked with sobs. "I can smell them. Please, Pearl. I'll do anything." He raised his head to look at her pleadingly, cheeks wet with tears "If you could just, bring one of them up here..."

"No! You think I'll help you murder a poor, innocent man so you can have your fix?" she spat disgustedly. Hal breathed deeply, his rage returning, and began thrashing again.

"FUCKING DOG! Why doesn't he just give up and admit I'm a lost cause!?"

Don't call him that!" Pearl shouted furiously.

"What, DOG?" Hal laughed maniacally. He whistled. "Here doggy doggy doggy. Walkies!"

When he began to bark and howl between his frantic chuckles, Pearl walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Dougie watched on as Hal's amusement turned back to anger. He swore, and shouted, and raged until there was no fight left in him, and he sagged again in the chair a sweat soaked mess.

"So you're the bloke my Alex is supposed to be seein' eh? What a mess you are." He grimaced, realising that this must be the same Hal Annie had told him about on their walk between corridors. He decided he didn't much like this geezer.

A noise in the corridor behind him made him turn his head. He ambled back over to the door he had come through, taking one look back at the exhausted vampire before heading out of the room to find Annie.

* * *

Hal lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling. It was morning, and well past sunrise, but with no need for a routine there was nothing to stop him from being lazy just this once. Not that it was really lack of drive that was keeping him from getting up.

He had left Alex at dawn, not wanting her to wake and be confronted by him first thing in the morning. She had held his hand and nestled into him when he had held her, but he wasn't sure she had been fully awake. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he was taking advantage of her. So after a sleepless night enjoying having her close for once, he had left the paper rose and crept out of the room as quietly as possible, retiring to his own bed but unable to sleep still. The sun rose, promising yet another day of warmth, a beautiful thing to most, but yet another torment to him. Another sign of how fake this all might be.

It was clear now that his choices with Alex were even more limited than he had first thought. In fact, after hours of consideration, there were only two choices. End it now and get the pain out of the way, for Alex at least, or give in to her advances and pretend that this life was real.

Which yet again meant that Hal faced an internal battle. He was neither good Hal nor bad Hal, that much was clear, but if he simplified the issue, the choice came down to those two facets of his personality. Good Hal would rather suffer losing her than a) cause her anguish at his continued and long-term rejection, and b) commit to a course of action that his conscience saw as tantamount to rape, even if she didn't realise that's what it was since he couldn't bear the thought of shattering her illusion that this life was real. His bad side, however, couldn't care less about any of that. He had suffered enough for humanity while forcing himself to stay sober. Now he was here in this world, and so was she, and there was nothing they could do about it anyway. Might as well enjoy it. Might as well enjoy her.

It wasn't exactly good Hal and bad Hal at war. That was too simplistic, the two personalities that had existed when he was a vampire simply weren't there anymore. There was simply human Hal, a mixture of good and bad that any human man might consist of. This war was more accurately a battle between conscience and lust.

It had been a hard few weeks.

Once his initial feelings on the matter of... consummating their relationship... had been addressed, much to Alex's obvious disappointment, she had done her absolute best to change his mind. She'd been subtle about it at first, stealing kisses, making every attempt possible to be close to him, even smacking his behind a few times and finding his disdain endlessly amusing. And every time he had shot her down with disapproval, tutting and raised eyebrows. But the truth was, that was a lie. He was playing the part of good Hal perfectly, so much so that he suspected she honestly believed that was who he was now.

The last week had been particularly difficult. She would knock on his door and enter without waiting for a reply, no matter what state of dress he was in. She would engineer situations where she would have to walk around with some part of her clothing missing just for him. Yesterday morning she had walked into his room while he was changing into his uniform, wearing only her skirt and bra, searching his wardrobe and stating that someone must have put her clean work blouse in there by mistake. Someone had, but it had been no accident. He knew full well that she had snuck in at some point and done it to torment him. Even if it hadn't been obvious from that alone, the fact that she was wearing the bra of doom had given it away. All black lace and red silk, almost sheer over her perfect pale skin, and only just concealing her... It had had the desired effect on him alright, but he had managed not to show it. Just about.

So that night, when Tom had left them in the house alone, when he knew exactly what was under that conveniently tight top she had changed into after work, and when they had been so intimate in their discussion, he had slipped up big time.

It wasn't just lust that had done it. It was a longing to be close to her. They both wanted each other so badly, not just physically, it was obvious they loved each other too. He had been trying so hard to distance himself, but for once, he just gave in, stopped thinking about the consequences and did what he really wanted. Once he had started, the need that pushed him was hard to stop. He was still surprised he had managed it at all. And after he had somehow gathered the strength to stop her from undoing his trousers, she had indignantly insisted upon grinding herself against him. He had come perilously close to flipping her over on the sofa and showing her exactly what he could do if he put his mind to it. In what he considered to be quite a heroic showing of self-control however, he had stilled her hips, breathed deeply, and convinced her he did not want things to go any further.

He had been celibate for almost sixty years, what difference did it make to spend another sixty or so in the same way? If only it was that simple. Sex had never been as hard to resist as blood, so he knew he had it in him to resist temptation. The problem was that blood, and sex in turn, had meant death and pain for his chosen partner before. Sex now that he was human only meant pleasure for them both. The only thing stopping him was the promise of guilt, and guilt was nothing new to him. Was it enough to stop him now?

The front door clicked shut and Hal heard footsteps pounding up the stairs. Tom was back. As the ex-werewolf reached the landing, Alex stirred in her room. He heard her door open, and a muffled "Hi Tom." before the bathroom door opened and closed, and the shower started running. Great. She was naked and wet, and only metres away from him, and he could do nothing about it. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

He got up and, taking great effort to resist the urge to give up altogether on being a gentleman and join her, took the chance to make a cup of tea downstairs while she was busy, creeping along the corridor and down the stairs as quietly as he could. He pushed his thoughts of their imagined dalliance in the shower out of his mind, replacing thoughts of nipping at her shoulders, pressing her against cold tiles, dancing fingers across damp skin, with the much more mundane and safe routine of boiling the kettle and refilling the jar of tea bags on the work top.

Consumed with the tasks he had given himself to stop thinking about her, he was startled to find that she was standing in the doorway watching him, though thankfully fully clothed. He was sure his face screamed guilt, though at quite what he wasn't sure. His old self, his good self, would have been terribly ashamed to have been practically fantasizing about her in the shower, but he wasn't his good self. _He_ couldn't care less what he imagined them doing together, as long as it stayed firmly in his head. He suddenly remembered the events of the night before, and decided he certainly did have something to feel guilty about.

"Alex... I'm sorry about last night. It was never my intention to upset you, and..." She walked towards him, her expression blank, and put a finger to his lips. He stopped talking and looked down at her with a nervous frown. She removed her finger and looked down at the floor, her expression full, to Hal's surprise, of shame.

"It's alright. I was sort of a bitch actually."

"What? No! How can you think that?" Hal stammered, horrified that she could be blaming herself. She sighed and replaced her finger on his lips to hush him, keeping it there while she spoke.

"Just hear me out. I went OTT, and I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have blown my top at you just because I couldn't get what I wanted. I mean, I can't really blame myself completely, and you should take it as a compliment really because your stupid, ridiculously hot body and your perfect face drove me a little bit insane the last few weeks. Are still, driving me a little insane..." she trailed off briefly and her eyes fell and lingered on his chest for a moment as she lost some concentration. He couldn't help the hint of a smirk that twitched at the corner of his lips. "... But, that's no reason for me to consider leaving you even for a second. 'Cause... I love you too. And I wouldn't leave you, even if you never touched me again."

"Alex..." he murmured softly against her finger.

"No. Shush. I haven't finished." He obediently did as she said. "I know what you're thinking. You're wondering how I can blame myself seeing as it's all your fault. Well you're wrong, that's how. Because it isn't your fault at all. I heard what you said last night, when you came into my room. About this, whatever it is, being for my own good. I don't know what's wrong Hal, and I know you won't tell me, probably because it's some old vampire crap that you don't want me knowing about, and that's fine. I don't need to know. I don't even need to know that you'll get over it one day because it's really not important, not in the grand scheme of things. I mean I want you to get over it. You've no idea how much I want you to get over it..."

"I think I can imagine."

"Let me finish. The thing is, I knew how uncomfortable you were with all the physical stuff the last few weeks and all I've done is push and push, because I thought it was just another 'Hal thing' and all you needed was some encouragement. Alright, a lot of encouragement." She muttered in answer to his raised eyebrow. "But last night showed me I was wrong, and I'm sorry I didn't see it before. What I'm trying to say is that, whatever it is that's wrong, I want to help you work through it. I want you to be comfortable with _us_, and I want you to be happy. I need you to be happy."

She couldn't know that her last sentence stung him, and he didn't want her to. He never wanted her to find out the truth. As she finally removed her finger from his lips, he stared down at her in wonder.

"I am happy." he lied. "How can I not be with you here? Even if I don't deserve you. Ow!" He flinched as her hand smacked his shoulder hard.

"Stop saying stuff like that. Now cook me breakfast." She smirked, sitting down at the table.

"What would you like?"

"Everything. Come on, don't you know my appetite by now?" He tried not to think of that phrase in an entirely different and wholly inappropriate for breakfast sort of way.

"Right. Everything coming right up." He smiled brightly at her. After tying his apron around his waist, he cracked two eggs into a glass bowl to beat and set a pan of bacon on the hob to fry noisily. Alex got up and wandered over to the worktop next to him to make herself a cup of tea, yawning loudly.

"Hal, why are there teabags in the sugar jar?"

"I don't know. Tom must have put them there by mistake."

"You've gone red. What's wrong with you?" She chuckled.

"Nothing, I'm just hot. It's the hob, it's making it very warm in here."

"You realise I saw you putting them in the jar when I came in? I just didn't twig it was the wrong jar..."

He turned away to flip the bacon in the pan and thought frantically.

"I was... distracted."

"By...?"

"The shower. I was thinking it could do with a good clean today, given all the extra use it's been having recently."

"Are you saying I've been using it too much?" she stood back and crossed her arms in mock indignation.

"No, no not at all." _It's been getting far too little use if you ask me _a small piece of him muttered in the back of his head. "I just haven't done it for a while. Cleaned it I mean! I should... really do that... today." He winced at how completely feeble his explanation sounded. Luckily, his enforced celibacy over the past few weeks seemed to have convinced her that he couldn't possibly have been thinking about her naked, and wet, and lathered up... He mentally slapped himself. This morning had already been torture and he'd only been up for half an hour. How would he cope for the rest of their lives?

"Well, whatever floats your boat. I can't believe you still choose to do cleaning."

"Near world annihilation and major genetic makeover are no excuse to live like slobs Alex, I've told you before." He caught her copying him mockingly and rolling her eyes out of the corner of his gaze, and smiled. She sat down at the table again and he brought her food over to her, sitting opposite with his owl bowl of cornflakes.

"Ah you're a star, thanks." She grinned tucking in eagerly as he watched her absent-mindedly.

His whole life he had allowed himself to lose control to the detriment of other people. This time he was determined he would be different, no matter how hard a task it seemed. He loved her too much to even contemplate failing her. At least things seemed to be looking up now. At least he had her still.

* * *

"Tea?" Pearl asked with a smile once Annie was settled in their cosy living room. It felt like she'd just stepped back into the 1950's, everything in the room seeming to have a purpose rather than being for decoration, and all in every shade of brown and beige she could imagine. The record player beside Leo's armchair hummed an old jazz tune, a deep male voice singing something to do with a rose.

_Give your heart and soul to me,_

_And life will always be,_

_la vie en rose._

"Oh, uhh... yes please." Annie answered, trying to remain polite despite the hurry she was in.

Pearl bustled off to the kitchen muttering about showing Annie what a real cup of tea tasted like, leaving the ghost wondering just how much she could take of the insults about her tea before she snapped. It had been a long day, or whatever length of time it had been – Purgatory was odd like that, time didn't really have much meaning – and Annie didn't really have the patience for any of Pearl's snide comments today of all days. Leo obviously noticed her irritation and chuckled from his armchair.

"She hasn't changed a bit has she." he stated lovingly, looking towards the kitchen doorway through which Pearl had vanished.

"No, she hasn't." Annie said absent-mindedly through gritted teeth.

Barely a minute later Pearl reappeared, the clattering of the beads on the colourful curtain hanging over the door announcing her presence. She carried with her a wooden tray with three gently clinking floral tea cups on saucers and a tea pot complete with olive and coral woollen tea cosy. The civility of the display made Annie's stomach churn thinking about the stark contrast of the chaos outside. Trying not to glare openly at Pearl's smug expression she took her cup gratefully, enjoying the warmth radiating through the china.

Her renewed ability to feel and taste had been an unexpected but welcome perk of passing over, but she supposed it made sense in a way. She _was_ sort of in heaven now, and as the werewolves she knew here also seemed to have the same traits as she did now, she wasn't even sure she was really a ghost any more. Besides all that, she had saved the world from a vampire coup after all, so it was only fair she should be able to drink tea again.

"So Annie, what brings you here? Something to do with the trouble outside? Or is it Hal?" Leo asked smoothly once they all had their teas.

"It's both actually. Long story short, I need to find someone from Hal's past who cares about him enough to... maybe I should start at the beginning actually. I'm really sorry, but he's..."

"Reverted? I guessed as much." Leo sighed as Annie nodded her confirmation solemnly. Pearl rose from her own seat and went to perch of the arm of his, resting a soothing hand in his shoulder. He brought his own hand up to cover hers, smiling sadly. "I knew this day was coming. He was so determined to save me when we came to you and baby Eve for help. I wondered then if he'd felt that evil stirring in him. It was as though he knew _he_ was coming back, and he was desperate to hold onto me, as if I could stop it. You did your best Annie, it couldn't have been helped."

"I knew I should have stayed." Pearl shook her head and looked down at the floor, her big blue eyes watery. Leo squeezed her hand.

"It wasn't your fault either Pearl. Actually, I think he was pushed over the edge. It's the Devil behind all this, he pushed Hal and Tom into hating each other. He's been manipulating them for weeks, months maybe." Annie explained.

"So it is Him causing this? The Devil himself?" Leo asked quietly, almost speaking to himself.

"Lord have mercy." Pearl whispered, gripping Leo's shoulder again.

"I know this is difficult, I don't think I've come to terms with it yet to be honest with you, but that's why I need your help. Hal, Tom, and a new ghost they lived with, Alex, need to do this blood ritual _thing_ to beat Him, and to make it work they need to be friends. Obviously that's going to be difficult with Lord Harry in the driving seat, but we have to try. I went to see The Judge and he insisted I had to find a representative for each of them to heal their friendship. I don't know if that's possible, or even if the blood ritual will be enough, but it's worth a try. The trouble is, I have no idea where to start with someone who could help Hal. I only knew him for a few months, so I wondered if you two might be able to shed some light?" She looked at them hopefully, but met only with blank stares.

"So what you are looking for Annie," Leo began after an uncomfortable silence, "is someone he knows, who would be able to convince him to do this ritual with his friends?"

"Yes. And preferably someone who wouldn't want to kill him either. Easy isn't it." Annie laughed nervously. Leo and Pearl looked at each other worriedly.

"He didn't really talk about his past very much. He said it brought up bad memories. It made him think of doing bad things." Leo explained.

"So he never talked about anyone? No one who could help?"

"Perhaps... there were other vampires. Maybe if you could find one with the same beliefs as Hal... the Hal we knew before, then maybe..."

"Nope, no way." Annie cut him off with a shake of her head, her expression firm. "There is no way I am trusting a vampire with this. It's far too risky."

"Well, at least that narrows it down then." Leo smiled at her. Annie instantly felt bad for interrupting the gentle man. "We're looking for a ghost who cares about him enough to put up with him, and who can leave Purgatory as we can't. I have to tell you Annie, the list isn't going to be a long one, if we can come up with any names at all."

"I know, I know, but if you can think of anyone, anyone at all at least it'll be a start. Otherwise I'll have to go trawling through his history and believe me, I do not want to end up doing that."

"What about... oh, what was her name Leo? That Lady whatsit. Marian? Maria?" Pearl frowned, looking down at him for help.

"Lady Mary? Yes, the woman he used to sneak off to see, I remember. She could be perfect."

"I'm afraid not." Annie piped up.

"Why not? Beggars can't be choosers." Pearl looked at her disapprovingly.

"They can if the ghost in question is absolutely mental and tried to stake him not long ago. Not a good combination." Annie smiled.

"Oh. Well then." Pearl sniffed.

"That Ronnie, the one from Bristol. They were close the last time he was good, right back in the eighteen-hundreds. What happened to him?" Leo asked hopefully.

"No, he passed over, remember?" Pearl sighed.

"Oh yes, of course. Well what about..."

Annie sank back into her chair and nursed her cup of tea, deep in thought whilst Leo and Pearl discussed a string of candidates before dismissing every one of them for some reason or other. This was useless. They were clearly just as clueless as she was. It dawned on Annie that there may just not be anyone. That Hal had no friends able or willing to help. The fact was that his long-term moral status didn't matter now. They didn't need someone who liked him, just someone who wouldn't kill him on sight, not who could coax him back to goodness, as they might have hoped before. It was as simple as that. And yet it couldn't be more complicated. Annie was rapidly giving up hope.

"Ohh!" Leo cried suddenly, leaping to his feet with a triumphant grin. He was certainly a lot more sprightly now than he had been when Annie had seen him when he was alive. He made his way to the small, ancient looking television set tucked into the corner beside Pearl's now vacant armchair. He grasped the remote control and pressed some buttons, looking down at it frustratedly when nothing happened. Pearl got up with a heavy sigh.

"What is it? What are you trying to do? Oh look, come here." She said impatiently, trying to take the remote from him.

"I'm fine, stop fussing will you! I just need to know how to get to the search screen."

"Search screen? What are you searching for?"

"I want to search for someone to see if they're in Purgatory or not." Leo finally found the button he'd been looking for, smiling as the TV blinked into life and a surprisingly modern screen popped up. Annie could only really equate it with supernatural Google.

"Who are you looking for?" she asked interestedly, sitting forward in her chair.

"Give me a moment, I need to check something..." his tongue peeked out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on typing in the letters. Annie frowned at the name. She hadn't heard it before. A loading screen appeared, and despite the lack of a need to breathe, all three of them held their breaths in anticipation. "Come on, come on..." Leo mumbled, willing it to work. Finally, a number appeared on the screen and he and Pearl cheered happily.

"Really? She's still there? After all this time?" Pearl asked disbelievingly. "And I thought I'd waited a long time for a door."

"It seems she is. And she's in Purgatory, look." He pointed to the word beside her name, _**resident**_, in bold green letters. He looked towards Annie. "That means we can use the number to contact her."

"Great. But who is she? And how do you know about all this, we only use the TV to watch old repeats?" she asked disbelievingly.

"We took a course, _Basic Skills for Passed Over People_. We're silver surfers!" Leo laughed jovially.

"Come on, hurry up and call her!" Pearl urged.

"I'm going to, don't rush me." Leo moved over to the dark maroon, plastic telephone sat beside the television on a doily covered occasional table, and dialled the number painfully slowly.

"Who is it?" Annie asked again, whispering to Pearl while Leo waited for an answer on the line.

"Oh, just an old girlfriend of Hal's." She answered distractedly, watching Leo closely.

"A girlfriend! Brilliant! But wait, did they part on bad terms?"

"I'd say. He killed her."

"He what!? Why do you think she'll help him then? You did hear me tell you what happened with Mary didn't you?"

"Yes, but this is different. Well, hopefully it is anyway, we'll have to wait and see won't we. Now shush." Pearl waved a dismissive hand at her, and Annie fell silent. Suddenly she didn't feel so hopeful. How could this ghost want to help someone who killed her? That was it, she was never going to agree. Alex had given up on him, and he hadn't even killed her, not directly anyway.

"Hello?" Leo said into the handset. Annie and Pearl tensed. "My name is Leo, I... Oh, you did? ...Really? ...Right. I see... Yes I'll tell her... And you. Goodbye." Leo put the phone down, seeming shell-shocked.

"Well?" Pearl asked impatiently.

"She knew we were looking for her. She asked me to tell you she's waiting for you Annie, in Hal's corridor. She's left a door ajar so you'll know which memory to go to."

"She's going to help?" Annie asked incredulously.

"Yes, she is."

Annie beamed, a weight lifted from her shoulders almost instantly.

"Thank you, thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Don't mention it, it's for the good of humanity after all. Good luck Annie, go and save the world." Leo walked to her and wrapped her in a strong hug, Pearl following suit with a smile.

"Thank you, I'll try my best." She smiled as she walked out of the door and back into the corridor. Looking around for Dougie and finding him gone, she threw her hands into the air and growled frustratedly. "Dougie? Where are you? We've got to go!"

She sighed relievedly as he popped his head through one of the doors and ambled out.

"Sorry Pet, I got bored."

"It's alright. What did you see?"

"That Hal bloke all trussed up. Handsome chap, but he's a bit of an arse isn't he?"

Annie laughed and began walking down the corridor, back towards Hals. Traversing Purgatory was a bit of a guessing game, you just sort of headed in a direction and eventually ended up where you needed to be. She hoped it wouldn't take too long this time.

"He has his moments."

"So where are we going? Did you find someone?" Dougie asked, following her.

"Yes, yes I did. We're going to meet her now."

"That's brilliant Pet. What's her name?"

"Sylvie."

* * *

(A.N. So this chapter was a bit of a hard one to finish, not least because although Sylvie has been in my head in this fic right from when the show finished and the whole idea came to me, but because since then, my good friend WhimsyFox has published her story _Set you Free, _and I cannot tell you how much I love it. So please read that if you're not already!

Hope you liked this chapter, please let me know your thoughts! x)


	6. Bridge Over Troubled Water

******Disclaimer: Being Human belongs to the great (Lord) Toby Whithouse**

Thanks again for your reviews so far, they mean the world. Got a bit carried away with this one so I've had to rethink my chapter plans, lest I get too carried away with word counts. Enjoy, and thanks for being patient! x

**Chapter 6: Bridge Over Troubled Water.**

Annie opened the door hesitantly, peeking through before pushing it open far enough to enter the memory. The room she found herself in was bright, lit beautifully by the sun streaming in through a gap in the cream curtains. The floor boards were shining solid oak, covered in the centre of the room by a large and exquisite rug, patterned in red, green, yellow and blue flowers. The wallpaper was even more impressive, an intricate tableaux of plants, brightly coloured birds and animals, not at all gaudy but breathtakingly stunning. A great white marble fireplace to one side smouldered with the remnants of a blaze, ash and embers spilling from the hearth, a gilded clock ticking softly on the mantel.

Any other day Annie might have been enthralled by the splendour of the decor, but today was not any other day. A large four-poster bed stood on the other side of the room, the bedclothes and rich canopy overhead matching the fabric of the curtains perfectly. Under the sheets a couple laughed and cavorted, and though Annie couldn't see who they were, she knew nonetheless.

She walked towards the woman stood in the centre of the room facing the bed, clad in a simple but beautifully cut white dress, golden hair glowing in the sunlight. Annie approached slowly, keeping her eyes averted from the antics in the bed as much as possible. She faltered as Hal emerged partially from the sheets, exposing his bed-mate also. She was thankful they both at least seemed to be clothed, he in some sort of plain white shirt, she in a respectfully buttoned nightdress. Unaware they were being watched, the young woman giggled uncontrollably as Hal tickled her ribs, a genuinely happy smile spread across his features.

"Stop it you fiend! I will have my revenge, you mark my words!" the woman managed between chuckles.

"I don't doubt it my love." Hal laughed, not letting up his assault.

Annie couldn't help but smile. It was the happiest she had ever seen him. She continued to make her way to the silent woman watching the scene play out still from the middle of the room.

"You must be Annie." She stated matter-of-factly, without turning around. Annie stopped, momentarily taken aback.

"Yes, I am. It's Sylvie, isn't it?" she asked gently, moving to the woman's side. A glance at her face confirmed what Annie had suspected. She was the woman in the bed.

"Pleased to meet you, I wish it were under happier circumstances. Excuse the choice of memory, it is a little more intimate than I would usually present to a stranger, but this one holds particular sentimental value. I have a feeling it may well be the last time I see it." Sylvie said sadly.

"You knew I was coming. How?"

Sylvie quirked her lips in a small, distracted smile. "I've been here a very long time Annie. I know how Purgatory works. When someone needs to find you, there are ways and means of making it so."

"You sent a sign. The picture. You sent me to Leo and Pearl?"

"Guilty as charged. I knew they would think of me eventually."

They both fell silent, Annie letting Sylvie have her time with the memory, knowing she might be right about never seeing it again.

Hal still hadn't let up his attack on Sylvie, but she had other ideas. She stopped attempting to grab at his hands and instead grasped a cup of water from the table at the side of the bed and threw it over him. He gasped in surprise and sat back, droplets dripping steadily from his nose and chin. Sylvie clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle fresh laughter and moved to leap out of the bed away from him, but he reacted too quickly, pulling her back into the sheets and holding her tightly.

"Ah! No, you're wet! Hal!"

"It's your own fault." He chuckled, nuzzling her cheeks with his nose. Her protests didn't last long, favouring instead kissing him fervently.

Annie flushed and was about to turn away, feeling suddenly as though she was intruding, when Hal pulled back, laying one more soft kiss on Sylvie's lips before rising from the bed.

"You know sometimes, I hate your routines." Sylvie sighed, wrapping herself in the sheets again now that his warmth was gone.

"You shouldn't. They keep you safe."

"I know, I know... They're still quite bothersome though, especially when they drag you from our bed."

"I won't be gone long, only up to Grove Copse and back. It will take barely an hour." He attempted to placate her, stripping off his damp night shirt to splash water from a ready prepared bowl and pitcher onto his face. He replaced it with a new crisp white shirt laid out for him on the chest at the bottom of the bed. Annie noted gratefully that he remained in the breaches he had already been wearing, rather than changing them too.

"It will take _exactly_ an hour as you well know. Honestly Hal, do you think I don't know you by now? Six years together and you assume I haven't worked out that you time things to the minute. I am actually quite sharp I'll have you know." She smirked teasingly.

"I expect nothing less of you my Lady." He smiled, walking back over to the bed and kissing her soundly.

"Good. Now if you must go, bugger off."

Hal shook his head slightly and tutted at her language.

"Why don't you take breakfast in the gardens today? It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day."

"Perhaps I shall when you return. Until then, I will be here waiting for you most earnestly." She stretched out in the bed, grinning happily. He looked down at her fondly and bent to kiss her forehead.

"I love you."

"And I you. And do try to be polite to the grooms!" she called after him.

He walked right past Annie as he left the room. She turned back to Sylvie standing next to her as he closed the door behind him. A tear slipped down the woman's cheek.

"Sylvie, why is this memory so special?"

"It's the last time I saw him. I saw the face again, less than an hour later in fact, but not the man. Something happened to him while he was gone. He came back and killed everyone in the house, grooms, Cook, footmen, the butler, his valet, the housekeeper. Everyone. He took particular pleasure in ending the maids I seem to remember. Then he found me, in here. He took even greater pleasure in that. Took his time. If I ever had any doubt in the difference between his good and bad sides before that day, it was swiftly removed. It's odd, but he didn't even look the same... Anyway, it was the last time I interacted with him. I've seen him since through the years, but I've only ever watched, never interfered. Not until today." She smiled at Annie, the gesture loaded with sadness and loss. "Shall we?" she motioned for the door and wiped the last of her tears. Annie followed her out, glancing back once more at the happy girl in the bed, blissfully unaware that later that morning, her lover would return and murder her.

When they re-entered the corridor, Sylvie closed the door behind them quietly, laying a hand on the dark stained wood for a moment, taking a breath before moving away. They met Dougie a few doors down, leaning against a wall and singing Rod Stewart, his foot tapping out a beat. It was an odd change between atmospheres, but Annie welcomed it. There had been enough sadness already. Now was a time for action, not dwelling in the past. She was even more pleased at the fact that he hadn't wandered off anywhere this time. She introduced the two ghosts and they shook hands, Dougie with his usual friendly grin and enthusiasm, Sylvie with a smile of resigned determination, yet somehow still warm. Annie admired her strength, remembering what a wreck she had been when she had said goodbye to Mitchell for the last time. And at least she had had the chance, Sylvie had had the love of her life cruelly ripped away and replaced by a monster.

"So, where are we off to now Pet?" Dougie asked as they walked through the door-lined corridor. Sylvie eyed them all distractedly as they passed, and Annie knew she was seeing the memories behind each one play out in her head. It was what she had done when she had first ventured back to her own corridor, too scared to go through any of the doors at first.

"Now we find you a way out of here." She answered, sounding more confident than she felt. "I'll be completely honest with you both, I have no idea where to start."

"First, we'll have to find a door in the right place, then we'll worry about getting through it. The Men With Sticks and Ropes can be... tricky." Sylvie grimaced. Annie suspected she had had experience of them before.

"Where are we going to find a door Darlin'? We have to get to Wales right? And then what? How do we beat these creepy stick blokies?"

"Ah Dougie, you underestimate me." Sylvie smiled at him. "Finding the right door is the easy part, though I wouldn't celebrate that too much. The glut of doors in the region is another symptom of the problems outside. But it is something we can use to our advantage, so we must be stoical about it. As you said Annie, we'll worry about that first. Is there a particular place we need to get to?"

"The house. I told Allison, she's Tom's... whatsit, that you'd meet her there. That's a thought, I need to check in with her actually, make sure she got there alright. She was going to drive overnight."

"Whatsit?" Dougie frowned confusedly.

"Yea. It's complicated. But, thinking about it, if it comes to it, would you please tell him from me to pull his finger out and tell her he loves her? I'm not sitting here watching another couple skirt around the issue... Oh." She looked at Sylvie, hoping she hadn't just put her foot in it.

"It's alright Annie, I know about Alex. I've been watching a little more than usual recently, hoping he wouldn't slip. I'm not about to be the _other woman_. He's never going to be _my_ Hal again, I've dealt with that. If we succeed, and if he's ever dragged back into wanting to behave again, she's welcome to him."

"Right, well. That's... that's good. So, this door!" Annie clapped her hands together, scrabbling to change the subject. She could only imagine how awkward it would be between the two women if and when they met.

"All you have to do is think of this house, where it is, what it looks like, the people that live there. We'll end up at the door closest to it."

"That's easier than I thought it would be." Annie smiled relievedly, privately glad that Sylvie seemed to be naturally taking over.

"As I said, there's an unfortunate glut of doors." She shrugged.

"Then first, I suppose I'd better find a TV and see how Allison's getting on."

* * *

It had taken some persuading, but Allison had finally managed to convince Lyndsey to loan her her car for a few days. She hadn't been at all keen on the idea, but Allison has gone to see her fully prepared, having created a story about needing to see family in Wales that she had been unable to contact so far, complete with in-depth backstory. With all the confusion and uncertainty, Lyndsey had been reluctant to let her go on her own, adamant that they should wait for the authorities to tell them it was safe first. Little did Lyndsey know that Allison was so involved, and that this was far more serious than the chemical leak and substantial power failure they had been fobbed off with by the media and the Government. Lyndsey didn't even know what she was. She had pretended she had taken up selenology, so that every month on the full moon, her friends thought she spent all night sat in a field with a telescope watching the moon and studying its geology. She had had to go to great lengths to hide the chicken she took with her.

Most prospective students chose their university for the merits of the course, or for some, the nightlife on the campus. While Allison had chosen hers for its academic offerings, the presence of a large area of woodland and farmland within easy walking distance of the campus had been a big draw. Now, a good three weeks away from the next full moon, her provisions for the werewolf curse couldn't be further from her mind.

As prepared as she could be for the journey, she made a note of the time on the dashboard as she pulled out of the small close where her shared house sat on the university campus. 22:17. _Perfect. All going to plan I should arrive at around two AM_, she thought to herself, trying to keep her spirits up. She had bottled water, energy snacks, maps, a blanket, rope, type puncture repair kit, a large torch, spare batteries and had fully charged her phone. Everything she could need for a long drive to Wales, and yet she had never felt less ready for anything in her life.

The houses on the campus estate were still lit at the windows, and although the mood at the university and in the city streets at the bottom of the hill had been markedly more sombre that usual, for the most part, everything was carrying on as usual. Students worked late in the library building, drank cheap vodka shots and Jägerbombs in the college bars, stumbled their way back up the hill and onto the late buses after drinking away their worries in the city's multitude of old pubs. Allison watched as she drove through the small campus with a stab of jealousy, and hoped sincerely that she and the others could win their fight with as little cost to these ordinary people as possible. This could not be the end of the world, it just couldn't.

Noting where she was, she stopped the car suddenly at the side of the road, ignoring the double yellow lines that prevented parking, and stepped outside into the cool summer air. The meadow where Annie had first contacted her, her favourite place in the whole university, and she needed a moment to collect her thoughts. The grass whispered in rushing waves with each gust of light breeze, the birch, oak and chestnut in the dark woodland, creating swelling shadows against the backdrop of the brightly lit Cathedral and city further down the hill. She closed her eyes and silently promised herself this wouldn't be the last time she saw it.

The roads were quiet, more so than she had expected, though life still went on. Along the A2 where it joined with the M2 weaving past Faversham, onto the M20 at Maidstone, the M26 and the M25, on through the vast, dark farmland of Kent and into Surrey, skirting London a comfortable distance from the bustle of the city, she overtook lorry after lorry, a long snake of heavy goods vehicles the norm for the area travelling away from the port of Dover and France beyond. That was normal traffic for the time of night, business and logistics uninterrupted by the potential apocalypse most humans had no idea was occurring, but there was a distinct lack of other cars, making her journey feel all the more lonely.

On to the seemingly never-ending M4, past Slough, Newbury, through the rolling swathe of green, flat fields, pastures and plains of Wiltshire and on to the outskirts of Swindon. The further she went, the closer to Wales she came, the more spread out the traffic was, becoming the odd car, people carrier, van, lorry and, most worryingly, a concerning convoy of Territorial Army trucks. On the opposite side of the carriageway, nothing stirred at all. Nothing leaving Wales. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but this hadn't been it. Where were the streams of people leaving the country? Were things less urgent than they seemed? Had Annie exaggerated the situation? A string of "Road Ahead Blocked" signs strung out at intervals starting just a few miles from the bridge made her think again. Ignoring them, she kept going.

A small group of police cars ahead ushered lorries off the motorway, parking them neatly along the hard shoulder. Again she carried on, surveying the scene of bewildered drivers chatting with the policemen and women that had stopped them, some gesticulating wildly, obviously unhappy at having been stopped.

She reached the tolls in good time, just under three hours, 01:04 the time on the dashboard clock. The tolls themselves were empty, hers the only car in sight. From a dashboard compartment she collected her carefully counted out fare of £6.20 for the bridge, threw it into the automatic chute at the booth and passed through the barrier and onto the Severn Bridge itself. Despite the dark, the view was as beautiful as ever, a wide expanse of black, rippling water shimmering in the half moonlight, the outline of land on either side of the two rivers, Wye and Severn, just visible if she squinted. And still no traffic on the opposite carriageway.

As the downhill slope began off the bridge towards Wales, she was greeted by a road block staffed by a mixture of police and soldiers. On her side of the road, amid the blue and red flashing lights of the police vehicles forming the block, was the army convoy that had passed her, already setting up tents in a field a few hundred metres back from the mud flats on the bank of the river. A few other vehicles were also visible and had been stopped, mainly cars and vans. This was one thing she had dreaded, being prevented from entering the country in the first place, and then the reason why after that. What horrors were going on over the border that meant this was necessary?

But far worse was the sight that greeted her on the other side of the road. Another road block, staffed still by police and soldiers, only many, many more. The reason for this was immediately obvious. Allison gaped at the scene spread below. Still at the high point of the bridge, she could see for miles, and trailing back as far as she could see, on the motorway, the smaller roads and country lanes surrounding the long river of tarmac that made up the Welsh side of the M4, even scattered across the farmland and fields, was a sea of bright white headlights in the gloom. With nothing behind her and nowhere to go, she stopped the car on the bridge to survey the scene.

Peering through the darkness, her eyes adjusting to the glare of the nearer lights of the camp and cars, she was further disturbed to observe a sea of movement between the headlights, as refugees on foot wove between the vehicles, making their way to the front, towards the barriers, desperate to cross the bridge. The glass of the windscreen began to fog, so she wound down the window to clear it. Immediately she wished she had not. The sound of tens of thousands of distressed people made for a depressing chorus.

Fighting down panic at the scene, she moved the car forward slowly, still mesmerised by the sight below. She pulled up to wait to speak to someone, at the back of a small queue that seemed sedate and ridiculous in comparison to the scenes of the other side of the road.

A line of men in army uniform, guns at hand, held a solid line amongst the orange and white barricades closest to her, while further forward, a second barricade and yet more armed personnel struggled against a tide of angry and alarmed people, shouting and bemused as to why they could not leave. She caught a movement in her rear view mirror and turned, to see three large tanks being driven in formation the wrong way over the bridge towards the blockade. Extra support.

Another movement, this time in the corner of her eye and on the muddy banks of the river some thirty feet below. People were trying to fling themselves into the water, attempting to swim across, while a long string of police spread out on the flat tried to stop them. Families, elderly people and those her age all wanting to swim the huge expanse of water to get away from... something awful.

In all her time of being a werewolf, of living in the supernatural world, this was the single most distressing thing Allison had ever witnessed. She felt sick to her stomach.

Drawing closer to the barricade on her side, her fears were confirmed, as drivers were turned away, told to go back over the bridge in convoy following an army jeep that would take them to the nearest exit off the motorway in England. The way into Wales was barred.

She wondered distractedly how news of these scenes had not reached the other side of the bridge yet. She had had the radio playing the whole way to the bridge, and apart from continued mentions on the half-hourly news bulletins, and a late night request show playing songs and promising "our thoughts are with those in Wales", nothing like this was mentioned. As a small procession of the vehicles ahead of her were turned around ready to follow their army escort back across the bridge, she noticed something that might serve as an answer.

Along the short queue, two grey suited men went from car to car speaking to the occupants, and though no one made a fuss, she could plainly see what they were collecting in the clear plastic sacks they carried. Inside sat an assortment of electrical devices, basically anything with photo or video capabilities. Whoever they were, they were quite clearly helping with the cover-up.

It suddenly occurred to her to check her own phone. Sure enough, when she pulled it from her pocket it was completely void of signal.

She was shocked from her thoughts by a loud knock on the passenger side window. Winding it down, a gangly police man leant on the frame casually, as if he'd said what he was about to a hundred times already that day. _He probably has_, Allison thought, already trying to come up with a reason why they must let her through, without sounding completely mad. _Yes officer, I understand that for some as yet unknown reason you've closed off the border between Wales and England, but I simply must be allowed through. You see, I'm a werewolf, and together with a ghost, a vampire, another werewolf and who knows what other creatures you previously thought belonged in the realms of myth and legend, we're going to stop Satan from destroying the world. _Somehow she couldn't see it working.

"Alright love, you're going to have to, woah!" He shouted in surprise, screwing up his nose and pulling back slightly. A few of his colleagues further away snapped their heads up to look at what was going on and started to make their way towards them, but he waved them away with thumbs up signs and smiles. Allison blinked in confusion, until suddenly the wind changed and a gust blew past him into the car. She caught the unmistakable scent immediately.

"Vampire! You're a vampire."

"Alright, keep it down love. Do you want them lot thinkin' you're bonkers? What's a dog want here then? Come for a look 'ave you?" he sneered with his heavy Welsh lilt. Allison wasn't sure how much he would know, let alone what she should tell him.

"I need to get through." She said. Simple was probably better.

"And I need a shag with Beyonce but it aint gonna 'appen. Wha' d'you want over that side anyway? Much safer on your side of the river. 'appen you should go back to your kennel doggy."

"You don't understand, it's very important. I have urgent business to attend to."

"Why should I give a shit?"

"Why shouldn't you?" Her experience in the debating clubs kicked in by instinct. "If you hate my species so much, as you seem to, why should you care about my safety?"

The officer raised an eyebrow as he processed her reasoning.

"Because I don' want you gettin' what you want." He tried. Useless really, against her persuasive skills.

"What does it matter to you? Surely you'll feel better with yourself knowing I've gone into whatever is waiting for me over there, rather than safely tucked up at home with a hot coco and a book?" She tried to hold down a smug smile. He squinted at her for a moment.

"Wait 'ere." He wandered back off to speak to the other officers. She tapped her foot lightly on the clutch as she waited, nervous to know if she had been successful or not. After a few minutes, he waved her forward. Two other officers had set about making a gap in the barrier, and while they finished, the vampire came back over to lean into the window again.

"Thank you." She said to him, unsure what the proper response to being allowed into what may well be basically the gates of Hell should be.

"Don' mention it. I'm not doin' it to be kind. Where you goin' anyway?"

"Cardiff." Almost the truth, but she didn't want him knowing too much, just incase. The officers at the barrier waved to show they had finished.

"Well good luck I suppose. You're gonna need it." The vampire grinned at her. She nodded solemnly, sure he was probably right, and made her way through the gap carefully.

Picking her way slowly through the military vehicles and personnel, hoping she wouldn't be stopped again, she took a good twenty minutes to reach a more open stretch of road, and when she did, she found it slow going again as the mass of people going the other way fanned up to take up both sides of the carriageway. For mile upon mile, she crawled along warily as dejected and terrified people moved out of her way with weary steps. Not many cars had passed this way for a while, it seemed. Every now and then, someone would bang on the window as she passed, some trying to warn her against going any further, others just seemed angry that she had a car and that she was going the wrong way according to them.

On and on the river of people went, and all the while Allison was forced to drive as slowly as she could to avoid them. By the time she reached the tail end of the bigger group on the motorway, another three hours had gone by. From there until the outskirts of Cardiff itself the journey was quiet for the most part. Cars and other vehicles, some laden with the possessions of the occupants, all crammed in together tightly, still passed in a constant stream going the other way, as did small groups of people on foot, bikes, mopeds, anything that had wheels. It was like a modern day exodus out of Egypt.

Close to the edge of the city, she found she had to weave around car accidents, vehicles abandoned, some smoking, some already burnt back to their metal shells. It was here that she saw her first bodies, spread over the ground, hunched over steering wheels, wedged between vehicles. She was sick the first time she saw it, stopping the car and opening her door hastily to vomit on the tarmac, but as the death toll on the route mounted, there wasn't time for sentimentality or nausea. She drove on until she met another, larger pileup, as though drivers had met it and simply crashed into it, adding to the mass of vehicles until it stretched back for a good hundred yards. She had had to drive on the grass verge beside the road to get around it.

The city itself was no different. As the motorway wound its way around edge of the city, housing estates and buildings came into view over the screens built to minimise the noise of the traffic and to protect residents from the busy road. Allison was spared a view of the carnage on the pavements and paths of the cul-de-sacs and streets she passed, but she could still see the fires. As far as she could see, fanning out towards the centre of the great settlement, fires raged, smoke billowing in great waves. She began to have to drive around bodies now, heaped under every motorway bridge, as though a great many people had jumped to their deaths before the traffic stopped. She tried not to look at them, but it was unavoidable to have to look at some. She knew their faces would stay with her for the rest of her life.

As Cardiff bled into Barry and he left the motorway, the residential streets of the town were littered with the deceased. Utter carnage. If Hell was on its way to the world, it had surfaced here first. The town was far from abandoned however. She passed shops being looted, people drunk and raving about the end of days in the streets, trying to fend off terror with a party atmosphere, ever the optimists. Or the hopeless. Here and there people wandered aimlessly, almost in a trance, not knowing what to do with themselves. It was these people that made her look twice over the others. There was something odd about them that she couldn't quite place. She shrugged it off as exhaustion and carried on towards her destination.

Finally the high ridged roof of Honolulu Heights came into view, the roads around it still surprisingly calm and devoid of all life. She felt a weight lift. Despite her still desperate situation, she somehow felt safe now. The car trundled up the road, the dashboard clock now showing it was just after five in the morning. It had been a very long drive. But as she approached the house, she pulled up, alarmed, just a hundred yards or so from the front door.

More men in grey suits, five that Allison could count, made their way in and out of the former B&B with armfuls of belongings. At first she assumed it was a robbery, but looking more closely, she realised their true purpose. Much the same as the two men on the bridge, these people must be involved in some sort of clean-up operation. She couldn't work out what they were doing here, or what they were looking for, but she knew she did not want to be discovered by them. She pulled into a parking space just a few car lengths away and watched eagerly, despite her tiredness.

After about an hour, the sky lightening into a grey, stormy sort of day, the last of the men deposited a load into their grey van and off they sped, obviously finished and leaving the front door wide open. Too scared and too tired to move, Allison made sure the doors of the car were securely locked, left her now defunct phone and her tablet computer on standby in case of a message from Annie, and settled down to get some rest. Her mind raced still, but with all she had seen and with all she was sure was still to come, sleep was a blessed sanctuary, even plagued by nightmares.

* * *

Another perfect day, warm but not too hot, a soft breeze blowing in from the sea and not a cloud in the sky. For the first time in the twenty-four days since they had defeated Hatch and become human, Hal was enjoying the sunshine rather than seeing it as sign of this world being fake. They had decided to take a trip down to the beach for the afternoon as all three had the afternoon off. Finally a convenient circumstance that he had arranged himself, rather than random and suspicious good luck.

He leant back against the concrete of the promenade wall and listened to the sound of the sea on the sand, his eyes shut. It was a weekday, so there weren't any people around to disturb the silence, or at least, that's what he tried to tell himself. It was also slap bang in the middle of the school summer holidays, he had done a Google to check, so the beach should have been crawling with families making noise and irritating him. But never mind that. Because he was here, enjoying the weather and the sand under his finger tips, with Tom and Alex, and that was all he needed.

In the nick of time, just before he started to nod off, he heard soft footsteps approaching in the sand.

"Hal?" Alex's voice asked with a hint of amusement, checking he was still awake.

"Hmm?" he answered without opening his eyes.

He jolted upright with a shout as a stream of freezing cold water hit his chest. Scrambling to his feet, blinking against the sun, the water ceased and he looked down to survey the damage. His white shirt was sodden and going slightly see-through, clinging to the damp skin of his stomach. Suddenly he realised why Alex had insisted he wear it. _Little minx_. Speaking of Alex, she was currently bent over clutching her stomach and gasping with laughter, the large, children's water gun she had used on him at her feet where she had dropped it.

"Why!?" Hal cried, outraged.

"Why not?" Alex grinned between chuckles. He fixed her with a glare, but a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Alex..."

She looked up at him questioningly, still giggling, as he edged slowly closer. Too late she realised what he was doing and tried to stumble away but to no avail. Hal grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug, arms wrapped around her shoulders to hold her close as the water from his shirt seeped through her own top. She groaned between laughs and struggled with little effort to release herself as he chuckled against her neck.

"It's only fair." He smiled, pulling back to look at her. She returned his smile and moved her own arms to drape around his neck.

"You do know I'll have to get revenge on you now?"

"Technically _I_ just got revenge on _you_, but yes, I'm sure you will." He agreed quietly, resting his forehead against her own as she smirked and leant forward slowly to kiss him.

"Oi! Pack it in you two, this is a family resort!" Tom shouted, interrupting them before their lips could touch. The pulled apart to see the grinning ex-werewolf strolling towards them holding a pair of brightly coloured water guns the same as Alex's. Hal raised an eyebrow as his friend threw one to him, and tested the weight in his hands as the water sloshed inside.

"Where did these come from?"

"Bought 'em from a bloke in one of the shops. Filled 'em up at one of those taps where you wash your feet to get the sand off."

"That's the last time I let you two go off to find a public convenience alone." Hal sighed.

"Just say toilet like a normal person Hal." Alex smiled, bending to pick up her own gun.

"Now Alex, you know or friend Hal isn't _privy_ to words like that." Tom said, mimicking Hal's accent and setting Alex off laughing again. Hal rolled his eyes and raised his weapon. "Uhhh!" Tom yelped as a stream of water hit his stomach. Hal grinned smugly. "Right! I was gonna go easy on ya', seein' as you're old an' that. But now, ya' gonna get it mate!"

"Tom... Tom, just think about this for a moment..." Hal laughed, backing away with his hands in the air in surrender. Tom pumped the handle on his gun to load up more water, trying his best to look menacing despite the fact that he had a huge grin on his face.

"I 'ave. Prepare to get soaked."

Alex was bent over double laughing at the pair, trying to stay on her feet in the soft sand. Hal glanced at her.

"Or we could just both go after Alex?" He suggested with a smirk. Tom stopped his advance and paused for a moment.

"Good plan." Tom nodded, turning suddenly and firing his water gun at the shocked Scot.

"What!? Nooooo!" She wailed, turning and trying to run as Hal joined Tom in the assault. "You bastards!" Well and truly drenched, she turned on them and began firing her own gun at them triumphantly.

A while later, all soaked and exhausted, the three friends strolled back up the beach towards the road, heading for home as the sun set in shades of red and gold over the sea. More flawless perfection. Except this time, Hal didn't notice. Preoccupied with Tom and Alex, squabbling over who had won the water fight, he couldn't help but be thankful that, however they had ended up here, whatever they had been through on the way, this was his dream scenario. He wondered what awaited them in the future. Would Tom finally call Allison, ask her to move in with them in time, marry her, become a father, and get that Labrador he wanted so badly? And what of he and Alex? Would he one day pluck up the courage to ask her to marry him? Would she say yes? Would they themselves have children, no longer as scary a thought as it had once been?

He was still only now adjusting to the fact that he could allow himself to love her. It was pure chance that she had walked into his life, chance too that she had lost her life because of him. She had stayed, inexplicably, helped him to detox, put up with his quirks, and despite their obvious differences, had come to love him. He wondered how long it had taken her to realise how she felt. He had known he loved her since two months after they had first met, during his embarrassing song and dance with the mop. It had been easy for him, she was exactly his type. Beautiful inside and out, endlessly and annoyingly inquisitive, impish in her sense of humour, unerringly strong in her beliefs and stubborn when challenged, resilient but with a fragility that crept to the surface past the bluster when she was unsure, direct and often crude, but easily able to articulate herself at the same time. He wanted to be with her until the day he died, whether or not he was worthy of her.

Hal slowed his pace slightly, unnoticed by the others, so that he could take a moment to himself to just appreciate this life. He had done so much worrying, spent so much time doubting that it was real that he had been missing out on days like this for the past three weeks. _No more_, he resolved. _It's time I stopped thinking about myself for a change._

"Hal! Hurry up, we're gonna miss the start of Antiques Roadshow!" Tom called back over his shoulder, the thought of missing the programme a very real concern to him. Alex looked back too, waiting for him to catch up and offering a hand for him to hold. He ignored it, snaking an arm around her waist instead and pulling her close. She rested her head against his shoulder as best she could while they walked along the sea front, watching Tom hurrying along infront of them.

Twenty four days, nineteen hours, forty-seven minutes and thirty-two seconds since they had become human, and Hal was finally starting to accept that everything was going to be ok.


	7. When One Door Closes

**********Disclaimer: Being Human belongs to the great (Lord) Toby Whithouse**

**Ch 7: When One Door Closes...**

Allison woke with a start. She blinked in the grim, grey morning light and sat up stiffly, rubbing her sore neck where she had been sitting awkwardly. Looking around her, she remembered where she was and the circumstances that had brought her here. A battered old Skoda parked on a nondescript street in South Wales, the day after the Apocalypse had begun. Not a very cheerful situation to wake up to.

"Allison? Are you there? Allison?"

The werewolf realised sleepily what had woken her.

"Annie? Is that you?" she mumbled with a yawn, groping for her tablet computer on the passenger seat. She looked around the street. Quiet, for now at least. She wasn't sure if she would have preferred to see evidence of other living people or not.

"Yes, did you make it there? Are you in Wales yet? Are you safe?" the ghost asked in a rush.

"Yes I did, and I'm fine given the circumstances, thank you. I'm outside the house now. How are things at your end?"

"Going well so far. I've found you some help, Dougie and Sylvie, a couple of ghosts who know Alex and Hal. They're on their way now, we just have to find a way out of Purgatory. What time is it there? How long has it been since we last spoke?"

"It's..." Allison scrabbled to find her glasses on the dashboard and put them on, squinting at the tiny digital clock behind the steering wheel, "Seven thirty. We last spoke at three fifteen yesterday so that's... sixteen and a quarter hours."

"Good, not too long. Well hopefully they'll be with you soon. Just... stay safe Allison. And thank you for coming. It must have been a hard journey."

"Sometimes we must make a sacrifice for the ones we love. Or in this case, the world might be a more appropriate example. If _we_ don't do this, who will?"

"That doesn't make it easier though... Bye Allison. Sit tight, they'll be with you soon."

The computer fell silent, and Allison was again alone on the deserted street. She settled back in her seat again to wait, hoping Annie was right about help arriving soon and trying not to think too much about what was to come. As bad as everything seemed, she couldn't help but be glad to know she would be seeing Tom soon. Once she saw him, once she knew he was safe, everything would seem better.

* * *

"So… tha's it? This door we're goin' through. Doesn't look so scary. Where's these blokies with sticks and ropes then?" Dougie asked, scratching his head and looking around, puzzled.

The three ghosts stood a few dozen feet away from the door they had found at the end of the corridor they had been walking for what felt like hours. It was green, bright and freshly painted, a polished brass number twenty-nine shining above a matching letter box. All very welcoming and homely, and in its own right creepy in its out of place setting.

"They'll be around here somewhere. I suppose they aren't expecting anyone to want to leave, only to enter." Sylvie answered distractedly, peering at the door and edging towards it, as though she expected the Men With Sticks and Ropes to appear at any minute and begin their attack. Annie followed suit, Dougie behind her.

"So what's the plan? Open it and leg it before they have a chance to react?" Dougie asked in a whisper.

"Aye, I guess so." Annie answered, shaking her head when she realised her Scottish slip. Dougie attempted unsuccessfully to stifle a laugh behind her.

They crept towards the door slowly, keeping a wary eye on the other corridors coming off theirs at angles, incase they should suddenly find they had company. They reached the door without incident, much to Annie's surprise and relief.

"So much for all the hype then. They're bloody useless. So, I suppose this is where I say goodbye. Thank you both, for agreeing to help. I mean, I know you're not doing it for me or anything but, well thanks anyway. I'd almost lost hope before I found you two. I wish I didn't have to leave you both."

"You've done more than enough already Annie. Your part was the most important. You brought us together." Sylvie smiled.

"Oh I wouldn't say that exactly… oh, come here." Annie blushed and pulled the startled ghost into a hug, grabbing Dougie as soon as she let go before he could avoid her.

"Go and enjoy your afterlife Pet, we'll sort things out outside, you mark my words." He beamed, full of confidence she knew he had put on just for her. She blinked back tears and cleared her throat, chastising herself for getting emotional. She had known them for all of a few hours, or however long had passed in "Purgatory time", but it was still hard to let them go. To know what they would be facing and not be able to help. Annie had always hated feeling powerless, something she had felt all too often against the vampires. This was even worse.

"I will." She lied. The first thing she was going to do was find a TV screen and watch. _Well_, she thought to herself, _perhaps after seeing George, Nina and Eve again and enjoying a rather large cup of tea_. Maybe she could offer help to them from here, a sort of CCTV monitoring system. She smiled at the thought as she ushered them towards the door. "Ready?"

"Nae, but I'll have to be. How about you Sylvie?"

"Getting there. I'll feel better once we're outside. And then worse again I'm sure."

Annie watched on as Dougie nodded and took Sylvie's hand in one of his, the other reaching for the door knob and gripping it firmly. With a breath and an exhale, he twisted it and pushed, flooding the corridor with bright white light. The ghosts blinked and shielded their eyes.

"Bye Annie." Dougie called over his shoulder as he and Sylvie stepped forwards into the light. Annie put a hand up to wave them off and turned to leave, not wanting to see the state outside when her eyes adjusted to the light.

A sudden shriek behind her made her spin on her heel.

Sylvie almost fell back through the door, Dougie following rapidly but still on his feet as two silhouettes appeared in the light. The Men With Sticks and Ropes became fully visible as they stomped into the corridor, one with stick raised, the other menacingly snapping the rope he held, grins spread across their faces.

"Bastards! I knew it was too easy!" Dougie shouted at them, backing away, trying to help Sylvie up, the long material of her dress hindering her recovery of balance. Annie watched on helplessly as with strength disproportionate to their size, the two creatures hoisted Dougie and Sylvie up, slamming them into the wall of the corridor.

"What have we here? Trying to leave? All ghosts here already must stay in Purgatory, you cannot leave, it has been forbidden." The creature detaining Sylvie hissed quietly, hands bunched up in the fabric at her neck, sneering face inches from hers. Its head crooked to one side, it looked at her with disturbing fascination. "Why are you trying to go?"

"We... have family on the outside. We want to see that they're alright." She lied quickly, thinking on her feet. Annie breathed a sigh of relief further up the corridor. It was imperative that the Men With Sticks and Ropes did not get wind of the plot against the devil. There was no telling what they might do to them if the threat was uncovered.

"We do not care. You belong here. You will stay here."

"Fuck you!" Dougie yelled, struggling against the man holding him. Without batting an eyelid, it slapped its rope held in both hands over his neck forcefully. Dougie's hands gripped at the rope uselessly as it choked him. Annie gripped the wall beside her, wide eyed with horror.

"Leave him alone. We'll stay, it's fine. If we have to stay, we will, just please don't hurt him." Sylvie pleaded. The man holding her snapped his attention back to her having been watching Dougie with a twisted smile.

"You'll try to leave again."

"No, we won't." she shook her head and cringed away from him as he pulled her away from the wall and forcibly shoved her up against it again.

"Do we look stupid girl?"

"Yes. Yes you do actually." Annie piped up. The two creatures looked at her, seemingly surprised to see her standing just a few metres away. She took a deep breath, crossed her arms over her chest, and took a step towards them. "I've had enough of you lot throwing your weight around. You made my life a misery when I was out there, tormented me, tried to drag me to Purgatory, and what for? So you could have your little power trip?"

"You are ours. All spirits belong to us. We wanted you here, little Annie. Oh yes, we remember you. You were very troublesome." The creature loosened its grip on Sylvie, a snide grin appearing on its face as its attention switched to Annie.

"Well I'm here now so... so do your worst. Come on. You missed your chance before. What was so interesting about me anyway?"

"You were strong. We didn't like that. You were a challenge."

"Or you're weak. Couldn't even pull me in here, even when my door came. I'd call that pretty shoddy workmanship if you ask me." She started to back away down the corridor, putting on a smug grin as best she could, hoping it would be enough to distract them away from the door. "What are those sticks and ropes even for anyway? I bet you can't even use them, you just carry them around to look all weird and scary. You're like the cheapest horror movie baddies I've ever seen."

"We'll show you what we can do, girl. We're tangible here, we can cause you pain and suffering like you've never experienced before. We'll tie you down, and lock you up, and keep you hidden in the darkest of holes just for fun. We'll laugh at your screams, and the torture will never end, you'll be ours forever." The two men dropped Sylvie and Dougie as though they were nothing, pacing towards Annie with a glint in their dead eyes as she retreated slowly down the corridor.

"I'll believe it when I see it. You're like... you're like..." she beamed tearfully as she remembered George suddenly, "you're like the world's gayest ninjas."

"Annie!" Sylvie shouted anxiously from where she and Dougie stood by the door. The Men With Sticks and Ropes whipped their heads around to look at them, suddenly realising they had left the two ghosts alone and within easy reach of escape.

"Go now! Don't worry about me just go!" Annie yelled at them as the two creatures turned bellowing furiously and broke into a run, tearing back towards the pair.

With one last desperate look back at Annie, currently fleeing as fast as her legs could carry her in the opposite direction into the shadowy depths of the corridor, Dougie and Sylvie threw themselves through the open door, tumbling out into bright daylight. Still able to hear the roaring Men With Sticks and Ropes in the corridor, and mindful of being dragged back inside, Sylvie reached up, stretching to grab the door knob and slamming the door shut behind them. The bright light flooding through the cracks faded, and they leant back against the wood, breathing heavily despite the fact that they didn't need to.

"They were on the other side before. Can't they just open the door again? Should we run?" Dougie asked worriedly, already shifting to get to his feet and offering her a hand.

"No, we should be ok I think. They can't survive in this world for long. They must have been in the plane between here and Purgatory when they came through the door before." She took his hand and stood, using the wall beside the door for extra stability. Despite the confidence in her words, she gave the door a wary look and took a few steps away. When it remained closed for another few seconds, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

"So what now then? Where are we?" Dougie asked, walking out of the open fronted porch they had found themselves in. At the wooden garden gate he turned back to her worriedly. "What about Annie?

"I don't know Dougie." Sylvie replied quietly, joining him at the gate to survey the street. The house and garden looked well tended, trellises thick with pink budding clematis covering the walls of the small brick porch, hanging baskets neat and bursting with flowering shrubbery, hedges clipped neatly and paintwork fresh and clean. All a stark contrast to the avenue the house sat on. Cars strewn across the road, crashed into those parked alongside the pavement, smoking, wrecked or abandoned, one half buried in the wall of another house a few doors along, one in next-door's driveway still running, a hose pipe connected to the exhaust chugging thick grey fumes into the interior through the driver's side window. And bodies. Bodies everywhere, in the gardens, on the road, on the pavements.

"Which bit?" Dougie asked blandly, transfixed by the scene before them.

"Any of it. I don't know what to do, or where we are." Sylvie swallowed to quell the lump forming in her throat and tried not to look at the bodies. "But Annie will be alright. She's strong, she's clever. The Men With Sticks and Ropes were only there for us really. She'll have slipped away from them and back to her heaven. That's what will have happened. I'm sure of it."

"So now we find this Allison, and then Alex, and Hal and Tom." He nodded determinedly.

"Yes, I suppose we do."

From the flowerbed on the other side of the garden they became aware of quiet sobbing. Upon investigating they found a woman crying forlornly over her own corpse, limbs spread at sickening angles under an open attic widow, white net curtain billowing in the wind two stories above.

"I don't understand," the ghost wept weakly in her thick Welsh accent punctuated with sniffs. "I was walking through town, then I was here. I didn't want to want die. I don't understand what happened." She mumbled with obvious distress.

"That must have been her door, and now she's stuck here." Sylvie whispered to Dougie, before crouching down beside the distraught spectre. "What happened? Why did you do this?"

"I don't know. He said something to me." The ghost answered, looking at Sylvie confusedly. "Am I dead?"

"Who did Lovie? Who said it te' you?" Dougie asked gently, following Sylvie's lead.

"Just a man. A man I saw. I was on my way home from the night shift. He told me... he told me to go home and... Oh my God. I killed myself. No, no I can't of. I jumped out of the... Am I really dead?" the woman repeated, looking between the two ghosts desperately. "I am aren't I? Oh my... I am!" she backed away in a panic despite Dougie's attempts to calm her and took off down the street blindly, stumbling over debris in the road. The old Scot stood to follow her, but Sylvie rested a hand on his arm gently.

"Allison Dougie. We need to find Allison."

He nodded sadly and turned back to face her. Fixing the young werewolf in their minds, they closed their eyes and took a leap of faith. Hoping their close proximity would help them to find her, they teleported away.

* * *

Sylvie opened her eyes tentatively, unsure of where she would find herself or what horrors she might see. It had taken a lot to concentrate on finding Allison instead of being distracted by thoughts of more appealing places. Not that there was really anywhere on earth that didn't hold some sort of bad memory as well as hosting happier ones. Her hand still on Dougie's arm confirmed that wherever they had ended up they had gone together. That was some comfort, knowing she wasn't alone _and_ lost. Only a second or two had passed, but it felt like much longer. With a calming breath she opened her eyes.

They were in a street at least, a long line of houses on either side sprawling downhill and cars parked along the road. It seemed almost normal, apart from the bodies again spread over the tarmac and a lone car alarm screaming endlessly in the next street.

"Alright. We did it. So now we just need to find a werewolf hiding in one o' these cars. Easy." Dougie scratched his head and started off up the hill. Sylvie followed behind, checking one side of the road while he took the other.

Just as she was starting to think they had landed in the wrong street after all, Sylvie heard a faint sound further up ahead. A car door opened slowly, revealing a young brunette woman peering through the gap before she stepped out slowly.

"Allison?" Sylvie called experimentally. The woman sighed heavily in relief and walked towards them quickly, hand outstretched and a cheerful smile on her face despite the setting.

"Am I glad to see you two! Am I correct in thinking that you are Sylvie?" Sylvie nodded with a smile and shook the proffered hand, opening her mouth to introduce Dougie, though Allison got there first. "And this must be Dougie." She shook his hand firmly.

"Nice te' meet you. Apparently we're meant to save the world." He chuckled.

"Yes, no pressure." Allison laughed back. "May I ask, how do you know Alex and Hal? Annie was rather vague."

"Alex is Dougie's granddaughter, and Hal and I... we were together for a while but he killed me." At Allison's worried look, Sylvie smiled. "It was a long time ago, I'm really quite over it."

"Still, that's a little... awkward?" Allison said, clearly unconvinced.

"So, next stop this TV station." Dougie clapped, changing the subject swiftly. "Where is it?"

"I've no idea, I was hoping you could shed some light." Allison ducked back into the car and retrieved a large road atlas. "I'd search the internet, but there's no signal, no wi-fi, nothing. We're going to have to do this the old fashioned way, using a map and road signs. It could take a while, but I reckon we can figure it out relatively quickly."

"Or the supernatural way. Still, even if one of us travelled to wherever they are, we'd still have to figure out how you could get there. Who knows how much time we can afford to waste." Sylvie shrugged.

"Right, then we try both methods and hope one produces results." Allison opened the map out on the top of the car and climbed onto threshold of the driver's door to pour over it, jabbing a finger triumphantly as she found Barry.

"Sounds like a plan." Dougie smiled, teleporting himself onto the roof of the car to join her in looking at the map. "How would we find the TV station Sylvie? Surely we can't just imagine one and go through them all. How will we know it's the right one? They might not even be in Wales."

"The same way we got here. Well almost. We knew we were looking for Allison and that we were nearby, so even though we didn't know what she looked like we could think of what we knew about her and it got us here. Which, by the way, I'm still quite shocked at." Sylvie explained, opening one of the back passenger doors and gathering her skirts into one hand to join the others in looking at the map. "All we'd need to do in this case is think of one of the trinity."

"Of course we would. Sorry Pet, I'm bein' a right dunce. Well, I cannae see any TV stations shown on here. Do you's?" Dougie frowned, still squinting at the map.

"I'm afraid not." Allison answered shaking her head.

"Back to the supernatural approach then." Sylvie hopped down from the car, Dougie following suit via teleport. "I'll go. I'll be as quick as I can, but I can't guarantee anything." She closed her eyes and pictured Hal in her mind, but just as she was about to teleport, a screech of brakes and Allison's hand on her arm stopped her. Upon opening her eyes she found a black saloon car stopped at an angle on the road infront of them, and two grey suited men getting out.

"Allison Larkin?" One of them asked, looking around the street warily but concentrating on the werewolf.

"Who's asking?" Allison stood up taller and tried not to look intimidated, though she stepped backwards slightly as the ghosts watched on. The suited man took this as confirmation.

"We have orders to bring you and your friend to the head of our department for questioning." He looked around again, seeming to know someone else was there but unable to see them.

"What? How do you know there's anyone else here, who exactly is this department head I'm meant to be seeing, and while we're at it what department. Not that it matters, I have to be somewhere, and you can't make me go anywhere against my will!"

"Please, Miss Larkin, we don't mean you any harm." The man looked at his colleague who shrugged. "We saw you talking to yourself and called it in, our head of department, Mr Rook requests your presence so that you can help with our ongoing enquiries, but I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to discuss the nature of our work or our department any further."

"Why not?"

"It's classified."

"Classified!? Does he think he's James pissing Bond or somethin'?" Dougie crowed incredulously.

"Ask them about the TV station Allison. Maybe if we show our hand now, they will too." Sylvie suggested, hoping this department might be some sort of help. At a time like this, ongoing enquiries important enough to be followed up in such a way must be something to do with the apocalypse, and it wasn't as though they had much to go on themselves.

"What can you tell me about TV stations in the area?" Allison asked, trying to sound casual. The two men glanced at each other.

"How do you know about that?" The first man asked suspiciously.

"I've got friends in high places." Allison answered bravely. Sylvie smiled and looked down to stop herself from laughing, despite the tone of the conversation.

"We can take you there. In fact we're under express orders to take you there whether you agree to go or not."

Dougie calmly walked over to their car and slammed one of the doors, shocking the two men into turning around.

"Of course, we'd much rather you came willingly." The second man swallowed nervously, fiddling with his collar and looking around again as though he might be able to catch a glimpse of the ghosts if he looked hard enough. Allison looked between Sylvie and Dougie for advice. After a moment, Sylvie nodded.

"Go with them. If they try anything, we'll protect you."

Allison walked towards the car reluctantly, turning back to lock her own quickly before taking a seat in the back of the saloon, Dougie and Sylvie teleporting in on either side of her. Dougie patted her hand lightly with his own and smiled reassuringly as the car pulled away accompanied by a short squeal of tyres.

"We won't let anything happen to you Pet. I promise you that."

* * *

Sylvie was surprised to find that the men driving them had actually stuck their word and delivered them to a television station. When the car stopped, the first man they had spoken to, a young thing with a thick mop of trimmed chestnut hair and watery green eyes, got out to open the door for Allison. She stepped gingerly out of the car, pausing to wait for Sylvie and Dougie to appear beside her again, before the young man lead her into the building.

Sylvie noted that while there were no bodies in the vicinity, it was clear by the blood splattered liberally over the front steps of the building and throughout the hallways that there had been a number of them here recently. She shivered as they walked past the front reception desk, a puddle of dark blood pooled on the surface, sticky and already crawling with flies. They followed the unsavoury trail all the way to a set of double doors and a large shadowy room full of cameras, with a well lit desk set up infront of a generic grey background. At that desk sat a man, again wearing a grey suit, hands clasped together infront of him, blonde hair perfectly styled for tidiness, blue eyes hard and far away.

He seemed to snap back to attention as they entered the room, the young man leading them shakily clearing his throat to announce their presence.

"Ah, you must be Allison." He smiled, polite but clearly tightly wound, stress showing in the deep creases on his forehead as he stood and made his way over to greet her, offering a hand for her to shake. He waved a hand to dismiss the man who had shown them in, and was obeyed without argument.

"And you are?" she asked suspiciously.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dominic Rook. I was wondering if you might be of some assistance. You see, I've had my men watching the house you were stopped outside since last night..."

"I saw them going in and out. You were looking for something?"

"Yes, anything that may help us to know what to do, but we've drawn a blank so far. The thing is, they saw you seeming to talk to yourself earlier on and that can mean one of two things Allison. Either you've succumbed to mental illness, or you were conversing with a ghost. Am I right in thinking there are two, with us currently?"

Allison looked at Sylvie and Dougie, shocked for a moment.

"Uh... yes. How did you know?"

"A talent I have, it doesn't matter." He waved away the question as though it were nothing. "Now Allison, all I need to know is what you were doing at the house. Do you know something that can help us to end this, because if you do Allison, it is vitally important that you tell me. You aren't in any trouble, I just need to know. How do we stop this?" He looked into her eyes imploringly through the hastily laid on charm, searching for an answer that Sylvie was sure he seemed to think he would find etched into her iris', he stared with such intensity. Allison shuffled her feet uncomfortably.

"Alex! Ma' wee bearn Alex." Dougie cried suddenly, spotting the three peaceful shapes laid out on the floor across the room. "Oh I've missed ye' hen." He mumbled quietly, sitting beside the ghost on the floor and stroking her hair.

"Tom..." Allison breathed, joining Dougie on the floor and taking the young werewolf's hand in her own. Sylvie walked over beside Rook, trepidation at seeing the face of her ex-lover holding back the same flood of affection that drove the other two. She swallowed down a lump in her throat and bit her cheek against the tears threatening to fall as she stopped a few feet away from him. In sleep, he looked just like her Hal, peaceful, untroubled, young and innocent. His hair was slightly shorter than she remembered, and he wore a days growth of stubble, chest rising and falling steadily as did Tom's beside him. But there the sweet image ended abruptly. His chin showed the shadow of blood stains, his white vest under his coat covered in a red mess of the stuff. She looked down at him with contempt, a sharp contrast to Allison and Dougie's reactions.

"We don't know what to do with them. We only came back half an hour or so ago to clear up the bodies and wake them up, to see if they can be of use. And then I got word of you being at the house. They seem to have had a scheme but clearly it backfired before they could stop Hatch."

"Hatch? That's the Devil, yes?" she asked without looking up at him.

"Yes. Have you any idea what their plan was Allison?" Rook asked again urgently.

"No, not really. We need to wake them up to find out. Why was he here? Why a TV station?"

"It seems he was about to broadcast a message to the world via an emergency broadcast. I managed to cut the signal in time but he fled before I arrived to intercept him."

"And I take it you're behind the lack of telephone, mobile and internet in the area as well?"

"We had to cover all bases. We can't risk him getting that message out."

"How did you know I was here though, without a way to communicate?"

"Short range radios. It's the easiest way of communicating for now, all of my men have them. We've closed the borders to prevent him from leaving the country too, but it's all just temporary. Without a way of stopping him indefinitely we haven't got a chance." Rook sank into himself, looking defeated for the first time since they'd walked in. Sylvie could sympathise. This was a huge weight for them to carry together, and he seemed to have been dealing with it alone up until now.

"He's done well, as well as can be expected anyway. If it wasn't for him a lot more people would have died already. We need to wake them up before it's too late." She gestured towards the trio still soundly asleep on the floor.

"But how? We can't just shake them back to reality, what if the shock kills them?" Allison looked up at her worriedly, stroking Tom's arm absent mindedly. Rook watched on silently, seeming to realise that Allison was talking to the ghosts in the room.

"Two of 'em are already dead Lovie." Dougie pointed out softly.

"But not Tom. There must be some way of doing this gently. We don't even know what's going on in their minds." The young werewolf moved to stroke Tom's temple, as though she could sooth him somehow. Sylvie wondered if she might be right in some small way.

"I can read their auras. See what's going on." She suggested, instinctively sitting by Hal and touching her finger tips to his head reluctantly. "Then we can decide how to do this."

At Allison's agreeing nod she closed her eyes and concentrated on pushing herself inside Hal's subconscious, clearing her own mind to let his own thoughts flood in. What she found took her by surprise.

No hunger, no desire to kill, no instinctual malice. Instead, a bright sunny day, a sandy shore, waves lapping at the sand, and three friends in the middle of a raucous water fight. Their hysterics made her smile while she watched on ethereally from the shadows of a covered promenade of fast food shops only a hundred yards or so away. It was perfect. She sank back out of Hal's head with the weight of guilt on her mind and tears rolling freely down her cheeks. That they had to pull the three of them out of such a wonderful dream, back to this, was suddenly quite terrible. Back to reality and death and the end of days.

"What did you see?" Allison asked worriedly, noticing the other woman's tears. Sylvie hastily wiped her cheeks with her sleeve before touching Alex and Tom's hands in turn, feeling the joy rolling off of them without needing to delve further. The dream was shared it seemed, and that made things worse.

"They're happy. So happy. It's as though they're living a life together, unaware of any of this. And we have to end it."

Dougie, Sylvie and Allison looked down at the sleeping trio regretfully.

"What's happening? Can we wake them?" Rook asked cautiously, stepping towards them with a frown.

"Yes. But it's rather sad that we need to." Allison explained without taking her eyes from Tom. Rook sighed and crouched beside her.

"But we must. I know this is probably difficult but need I remind you, people are dying out there. The sooner we get this done, the more people we can save." He replied impatiently, irritation showing in his tone.

"He's a weasily little bastard this one." Dougie grumbled.

"But he's right. We need to get this over with." Sylvie nodded at the two of them.

"Sylvie, is there some way that you could warn them? You saw them before, what if you could go back into Hal's head and speak to him?" Allison suggested. Sylvie looked back down at Hal and thought for a moment, while Rook stood again to pace, muttering under his breath about priorities and sacrifices for the greater good.

"Theoretically, I could. But I'd probably end up trapped too."

"Mr. Rook. How long have they been here?" Allison asked, rising to her full height, her tone firm. The man regarded her curiously before pulling a silver pocket watch from his jacket.

"Just over twenty-four hours. Why?"

"One more can't hurt, can it?" the werewolf muttered to herself, then turned back to Sylvie. "Do it. See if you can get them to wake themselves up, and if not, we'll wake you all forcibly in one hour."

"What? No! We need to do this now, this is ridiculous." Rook raged, finally losing his cool.

"It's kind, and it might help speed things up when we do wake them up, if they already know the situation." Allison kept her voice level. "Or I can stand here and argue with you and they'll be asleep longer, the choice is yours."

"You tell 'im Darlin'." Dougie whispered beside Sylvie. Rook threw his hands into the air in defeat.

"One hour and then I am waking them up, no matter the consequences to your little gang. I have a responsibility to the people out there to do what will save them, and only them. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly." Allison smiled triumphantly. "Sylvie, do your thing."

The ghost raised an eyebrow briefly at the phrase before touching a hand to Hal's temple again, forcing herself back into his head. It took a few tries and a lot of effort, but she managed to block out everything around her, the soft sound of Dougie stroking Alex's hair, the clicking soles of Rook's shoes pacing back and forth on the floor tiles, one of the fluorescent lights high above blinking with an electric buzz. She ignored where she was and let herself sink into nothing, blackness, a warm comforting abyss akin to the sleep she hadn't experienced for so long. Her muscles relaxed, her unnecessary but rhythmic breathing slowed.

With one last deep breath she opened her mind to his thoughts and threw herself inside, the shock of it like falling from a height into a bath of ice. She briefly felt her body go limp and hit the floor of the TV station in the real world at the same time as her subconscious body landed with a thump in his dream, stunning her momentarily. She blinked her eyes open reluctantly, forcing herself to look at where she had ended up...

* * *

"Oh yeah! Two hundred quid, get in! You two are rubbish at this." Alex grinned, jumping up from the sofa to do a victory dance while Hal tried not to watch too closely.

"It was just a fluke." Tom moped from the other side of the sofa.

"Like the last five flukes you mean?" Alex retorted, still beaming as she flopped back down between him and Hal.

"Lucky streak that's all."

"Sure, whatever Mr sore loser."

"I'm not a… Alright you wait! Next one, I'm gonna to get it. Just you shut up and watch the master at work."

"If you say so." She smiled pleasantly, eyes sparkling with mischief.

Hal watched the pair, both sitting forward eagerly as the next pensioner described his antique agonisingly slowly and in great detail to the spectacled "expert" opposite. A "family heirloom" passed down to him from his father's mother's uncle, or some such obscure connection, treasured and known to be worth "a few bob", but sadly stashed away in an attic for decades where no one could see it, and all he wanted was to see how much value it had accumulated over the years so that he might insure it for the correct amount.

"Bollocks, he's going to sell it." Alex muttered accusingly, echoing Hal's own thoughts.

"Quite." He replied, eyeing her with equal parts disdain and wonder. The curve of her neck sloped perfectly, her skin unblemished and perfect, her jaw tense with amusement and anticipation as she waited for the expert's assessment. Hal swallowed. He had always had a thing for necks, even though it had usually been due to the red fluid gushing beneath the skin. He forced himself to look back at the television, and away from the desire to trail kisses over her throat. He very much doubted Tom would approve of that sort of behaviour while the Antiques Roadshow was on.

The expert took the antique, a snuff box, in his unattractively sweaty paws and began to turn it for close camera angles galore. He described, again in great detail, the features of the small container. Nice oval shape, oak carved, a hinged lid crafted from bone with gilt inlay detailing a wolf in a pointy edged, contemporary style curiously resembling origami. "A lovely little item" the sweaty expert proclaimed, setting it down on the table again with a surprisingly sincere smile.

"Alright ladies, your bids please." Alex clapped as though she were really going to take their money.

"Looks expensive," Tom mumbled, taking his estimation very seriously, "Hundred and fifty." He said finally, with a confident nod. "Go on Hal, what do you think."

"Alex should go next, I have inside knowledge."

"Hmm…. Fifty." She guessed. "Go on then Nana, don't tell us, you used to own one?" She smirked at his raised eyebrow for her use of the term "Nana". She knew full well he hated it. He was at least manly enough to be mockingly called Grandpa, and technically young enough now not to deserve the name at all.

"No I didn't, not like that anyway. I had an altogether more ornate version, and I didn't keep snuff in it."

"What did you keep…" Alex stopped mid flow at his clear look of "_don't ask"_, nodding in concerned understanding.

"But they were commonplace. I shouldn't think it's worth more than Twenty Pounds."

With a quite ridiculous air of tension, the three of them waited for the sweaty expert to reveal his estimate. Hal smiled satisfactorily as the pensioner's face fell upon hearing the disappointing sum of twenty to thirty pounds.

"See. Tight bastard did want to sell it. Family heirloom my arse." Alex laughed. Hal smiled at her fondly, reaching for her hand and giving it a light squeeze. She squeezed back, settling against him and resting her head on his shoulder.

They watched the rest of the programme in much the same way, with Alex winning the majority of the bets. She claimed quite certainly that it was all skill, but Tom loudly protested, suggesting blind luck instead. Hal neglected to get involved, leaving them to argue it out between themselves. When the closing credits rolled, he excused himself to go and make them all some tea. He glanced through the serving hatch to check on the progress of the argument, and found them attempting to settle the score with an arm wrestle over the arm of the sofa. He tutted to himself and got back to shovelling sugar into Tom's tea. It never failed to amaze him quite how much of the stuff the werewolf could put away, wondering idly if his change to a completely human body would mean his diet would also need to change.

"What the fuck!" he heard Alex shout from the other room. Shaking his head disapprovingly, he picked up the tray he had placed the teas on to transport them easily and made his way towards the living room, backing through the swing doors concentrating carefully on not spilling the liquid in the cups.

"Alex, for the last time, I wish you would be so crass. What's wrong?"

"Hal..." Tom began hoarsely. His tone made Hal wonder what had gone wrong this time. _Can we not just have a nice, civilised evening in together without someone spilling something, or breaking something, or passing noxious gases through their systems and blaming it on someone else? Is it too much to ask that we all just..._

The moment he turned to face them he knew something wasn't right, but it took him a moment to realise the full extent of what confronted him. Tom and Alex, both now on their feet, watched on in shock as a woman in a full length white dress shakily pulled herself up from the floor infront of the bar, holding her head in her hands and groaning. A woman he had never thought in a million years that he would see again.

"Sylvie?"

(And now the real fun starts... Next chapter **...Another Always Opens** coming soon!)


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